Hidden Guild: Silent Leaf
by kingoffire1
Summary: Years ago Fiore was protected by a group of five independent guilds that worked in the shadows unknown by the public. However they were believed to be destroyed and any survivors were forced to find a new life. These rumors are wrong as one guild survived. Crippled they were abandoned by the kingdom and left to disband. Instead they've been biding their time so that they can return
1. Chapter 1

**Hidden Guild: Silent Leaf**

**Chapter 1: Enter the One-Man Army**

**Disclaimer: I own neither Fairy Tail nor Naruto they belong to Mashima Hiro and Kishimoto Masashi respectively**

**A/N: First story attempt. I wondered what would happen if the Naruto characters were actually mages in Fiore and my mind came up with this, so I ran with it. There are going to be errors in this fic, because I am NOT a professional this is for my entertainment and maybe yours if you like it.**

"Talking"

'Thinking'

**"Demon Talking"**

_'Flashback'_

_Magic/Magic Item_

**Location/Time Change**

**Fairy Tail**

"Hmm" a brown eyed blond haired young women with a curvaceous body wearing a red top and pink skirt with a pink ribbon holding her hair in a small ponytail on the right side of her head stood in front of the request board pondering over which job to take. "Searching for a magical bracelet, removing a spell from a cursed stick, fortune telling using astrology, exterminating a devil on a volcano! There sure are a lot of different kinds of jobs."

"Excuse me" a young blonde man with tan skin and three whisker-like marks on each of his cheeks wearing an orange and black tracksuit with black sandals and a black bandanna apologized as he reached past her and took one of the jobs off of the board. While Lucy continued to search for a job the same man came back three times for three more jobs, when she turned to ask him how he planned to do so many jobs she let out a surprised shriek when she saw over ten identical copies of the man in various places around the guild.

"Oh, I see you met Naruto, Lucy." Stated Mirajane, the guild's favorite bartender, as she passed out drinks.

"How is that possible?" Lucy asked.

"Naruto uses _Clone Magic _to make identical copies of himself. They all have his personality and abilities, plus he gets all of their memories when the pop so he can take multiple jobs at once. But, the downside is that it uses a lot of magic and they dispel after one hit." Mira explained "That reminds me. Naruto don't forget to show me your jobs while Master is gone."

"Okay Mira-chan." Several Naruto clones showed their jobs to Mira before leaving.

"Mira, where is the Master?" Mira started to explain the way the guilds were organized and about the regular meetings to Lucy using Reedus's _Light Pen, _before Natsu interrupted her by scaring Lucy. "Natsu don't scare me like that!" She shouted at the pink haired dragon slayer as he laughed with his partner in crime Happy the blue talking cat.

"What's with all the screaming?" Naruto asked as he stopped examining the request board for another job.

"I was just explaining to Lucy about the guild system. Naruto, you've never met Lucy have you." Mira asked.

"Who?" Naruto had a confused look on his face as he squinted at Lucy, unnerving her. "Nope! Nice to meet you I'm Naruto Uzumaki." He said with a fox-like smile as he held out his fist. Lucy hesitantly bumped his fist as she introduced herself.

"I'm Lucy. It's nice to meet you Naruto… you are the real you right?"

"Huh? Oh, you must've ran into one of my clones. Yeah, I'm the real me." Naruto said as he rubbed the back of his head.

"Alright. You've met Naruto, now pick a job already, Lucy" Natsu said with a smile.

"We picked one last time so now it's your turn to choose." Happy exclaimed.

"Don't be ridiculous, our team is history." Lucy replied.

"Why?" Natsu asked.

"Last time you only picked me because I was blond!" Lucy yelled at him.

"That's not the only reason, I picked you because you're cool!" Natsu responded with a toothy grin. Lucy turned away with a pout.

"What? Why choose now? I heard that you did great on your last job. You're guaranteed to get a lot of different offers." Drawled a blue haired man in his boxers with his guild mark on the left side of his chest.

"Gray, your clothes." Cana, another guild member, informed Gray of his current state of dress while she drank alcohol straight from a barrel. Gray reacts with a start, seemingly unaware that he wasn't wearing anything other than his boxers.

"Shut up." Gray turned to glare at Natsu.

"Did you tell me to shut up?" he asked as he grabbed Natsu's scarf.

"Your talking is pissing me off, pervert." Was Natsu's response as they got into each other's face and started to trade insults before degrading into another one of their fights.

"Lucy why don't the two of us form a team of love tonight?" asked the residential playboy Loke. "You truly are beautiful. If it weren't for my sunglasses I would go blind just by looking at you."

"You might want to take the sunglasses off lover-boy." Naruto muttered while eating ramen.

"Oh, are we a little jealous Naruto?" Loke replied with a smug smirk. A clone appeared by Loke in a cloud of smoke.

"Nah Boss just thought that you weren't able to see her keys with them on."

"K-k-keys?" Naurto's clone pointed to Lucy's belt where her Celestial Keys were stored, "Yeah she's a Celestial Spirit Mage." Loke acted like he just learned that Lucy had the plague and jumped away from her.

"Fate you are so cruel!" He ran out of the guild in tears. "Sorry but this is the end of us!"

"We never started in the first place." was Lucy's muttered response as she watched him flee in terror.

"Loke has issues with Celestial Mages." Mira kindly informed Lucy.

"I heard that he was rejected by one in the past." a Naruto clone said.

"Nah, I heard that one broke his heart." another clone said while drinking with Cana.

"My favorite is the one where he was hounded by a Celestial Mage he didn't love, so he changed his name and guild, and avoids other Celestial Mages in case the spirits ever find out who he is and report back to her." a third clone gave his input as he ordered a bowl of ramen. This disturbed Lucy as they were all supposed to be the same person, so Naruto was essentially talking to himself out loud.

"Is that normal?"

"Is what normal Lucy?" Mira asked.

"For Naruto's clones to do that."

"Oh. Yes, his clones are capable of independent thought and are parts of Naruto's mind. So they aren't exact copies and can have different opinions and ideas." Mira cheerfully informed her.

"I meant talk to each other. I thought they shared memories." Lucy corrected Mira.

"That only works when they dispel. Which seems to mean that whenever anyone wants to talk to me they tell the nearest clone then punch it. Bastards." Naruto explained to Lucy. The trio were interrupted when Natsu crashed into Lucy.

"Would you guys give it a rest?" Lucy complained from her new spot on the floor.

"He started it! I'm just paying him back." was Gray's response. Natsu got off of Lucy and back into Gray's face.

"You provoked me you droopy eyed bastard."

"And when did I do that you squinty eyes bastard?"

Before they could start fighting again Loke burst through the guild's doors. "WE'RE IN TROUBLE! ...Erza is back." Most of the guild began to panic at Loke's announcement.

"Natsu mentioned Erza before, who is she?" Lucy asked Mira, one of the only guild members not petrified with fear. Before she could answer Naruto cut in.

"Erza-neechan is the strongest female mage in Fairy Tail. She's awesome!" Naruto seemed to be the only one excited to see Erza, confusing Lucy.

Booming footsteps were heard approaching the guild, confirming that Erza was indeed back. The guild looked on in fear as the footsteps got closer. The doors swung open giving Lucy her first glimpse of Erza. She saw a young woman with scarlet hair, brown eyes, and a slender well-endowed figure wearing black boots, a blue skirt, and armor with the Heart Kreuz symbol over a red Fairy Tail guild mark carrying a massive horn decorated in jewels with one hand. She sets it down with a boom announcing her presence. "I'm back. Is Master here?" Were Erza's first words.

Mira happily greets Erza and answers her question, "Welcome back. Master is at the regular meeting."

"Erza-neechan!" Erza was suddenly picked up and hugged from behind by Naruto, "Welcome back did you have a good mission? What is that?" Naruto bombarded her with questions as he continued to try and crush his 'sister'. Lucy was startled by his behavior and questioned Mira about his apparent lack of self-preservation.

"Naruto and Erza think of each other as family since Erza resembles Naruto's mother."

"The mission went well and this is a horn from the monster I subdued. The villagers decorated it before giving it to me as a souvenir." Erza returned Naruto's hug, clanging his head off her breastplate in the process. "However" Erza's grip on Naruto tightened, "I heard a lot of rumors while I was gone about all of you, especially you Naruto." The entire guild broke out into a cold sweat at those words.

"Hehe, what do you mean Neechan?" Naruto nervously tried to play clueless while caught in his adoptive sibling's grip.

"Fairy Tail has apparently been causing a lot of problems and even if the Master forgives you I won't." Erza went on to list what various members were doing wrong.

"Is she a disciplinary or something?" Lucy muttered.

"That's Erza." was Happy's response.

"Are Natsu and Gray here?" Erza moved on, seemingly unaware that she still had Naruto in a headlock And was dragging him with her.

"Aye!" Happy pointed them out to Erza.

Natsu and Gray had swung their one arm around the other's neck and were shaking hands with the other, obviously terrified. "Yo, Erza. The two of us are getting along as usual." was Gray's shaky greeting as Natsu did his best Happy impression greatly shocking Lucy at their personality change.

"I see. While even best friends fight at times I prefer it when the two of you get along."

"I've never seen Natsu act like this!"

Mira drew a chart while explaining the situation to Lucy, "Natsu and Gray are terrified of Erza."

"Why?"

"Natsu challenged Erza to a fight and was destroyed, Erza once caught Gray walking around naked and beat him to a pulp, and Loke tried to flirt with her and was nearly beaten to death."

"Natsu. Gray. I need to ask you and Naruto for a favor. Where did he go?" Naruto got Erza's attention in a strained voice

"Neechan you never let go of me." Erza dropped Naruto with an apology.

"I heard something disturbing on my last job and would normally consult the master, but it has to be done fast. I need the three of you to help me with this job." Erza's request stuns the guild as she had never teamed up with anyone before. "We're leaving tomorrow. Be prepared. I will tell you the details on the job." was Erza's last instructions before leaving with Naruto in tow.

"Natsu, Naruto, Gray, and Erza. Together this could be the strongest team Fairy Tail's ever had." Mira murmured in shock at this new development.

**Magnolia Station the next day**

"Why am I stuck on a team with you?" Natsu demanded from a fully clothed Gray.

"That's my line. If Erza needs help then I'm more than enough." Gray and Natsu were causing a scene while waiting for Erza to buy the tickets. Leaving Happy, Naruto, and Lucy sitting on a bench.

"Just pretend we don't know them." Lucy advised in embarrassment.

"Why'd you come with us Lucy" Naruto asked while watching Gray and Natsu argue.

"Because Mira said that Natsu and Gray were going to spend the entire time fighting if Erza isn't watching and you wouldn't do anything to stop it."

"But you aren't doing your job." Happy noticed. Before Lucy could respond Erza arrived with an apology and a huge cart full of luggage. Natsu and Gray immediately started getting along with Natsu doing his Happy impression.

"It's best when you get along. Who are you? I saw you at Fairy Tail yesterday but didn't get your name." Erza noticed Lucy. Before she could answer Naruto introduced her.

"This is Lucy, our newest recruit. She uses Celestial Spirit Magic and is here at Mira's request." Behind Erza's back Natsu and Gray resumed their glaring contest.

"I'm Erza. It's nice to have you with us."

"Yosh! Let's get this mission started!" Naruto made a clone to take Erza's luggage and started to push everyone towards the train.

"Wait! Erza, I have one condition for being on this mission." Natsu said with unusual seriousness.

"What is it?"

"When we get back fight me."

Natsu's request surprised the other mages. "Oi Natsu remember what happened last time. Are you suicidal?" Gray's attempts to talk him out of it were ignored.

"This time it will be different."

Erza regarded Natsu for a moment. "Neechan, he really has gotten better. This time he might have a chance." Naruto whispered into Erza's ear.

"In that case… I accept the challenge." Natsu became pumped by Erza's response and rushed onto the train.

"Well at least he got on the train voluntarily this time." Naruto commented before boarding himself.

**Train Car**

"Ugh" Natsu dejectedly slumped over in his seat, once again struck by motion sickness. Fairy Tail's strongest team were currently sitting with Gray, Happy, and Natsu on one side and Lucy, Naruto, and Erza on the other.

"Man, Natsu you're such a loser."

"Even though I've seen it before it still looks painful." Lucy tried to sympathize with Natsu.

"Here Natsu swap seats with Naruto." After changing places at Erza's request, Natsu is sucker punched into sweet unconsciousness by Erza.

Lucy becomes curious about her partner's abilities, "I've only seen Natsu and Naruto's magic before. What kind of magic do you use Erza-san?"

"I have more than just my Clone Magic Lucy."

"Really? What else can you do?"

"I can also use Wind Magic." Naruto then demonstrates by creating a miniature tornado in his hand.

"Erza's magic is really pretty. When she uses it her enemies' blood goes everywhere." Happy gave his "explanation" while munching on a fish.

"Not really. I think Gray's magic is much prettier." Erza surprises Gray with her compliment, getting him to demonstrate some of his magic. He puts his right fist on his left palm conjuring a blue magical seal. When he moves his hands a Fairy Tail symbol made out of ice is revealed.

"Ice Molding Magic." was his brief explanation.

Gray's expression turns serious as he turned to Erza, "Isn't it about time you told us what we're supposed to be doing."

"You're right, let me explain. We are going against the dark guild, Eisenwald. They are planning to cause havoc with a magic called Lullaby."

'Lullaby. Eisenwald. I thought that Sai said that they had them under control at the last meeting. What's going on?' Naruto wondered as Lucy and Gray told Erza about the ex-members they had run into.

"Let me start from the beginning. On my way back from the last job I stopped at a mage bar in Onibus. A group of mages were there complaining about something that they couldn't get to because of a seal. Initially I thought it wasn't anything suspicious until I overheard the rest of the conversation. One of the mages said that he would get Lullaby back in three days and to tell Erigor. I didn't recognized the name at the time, but later I realized where I had heard of it before. Erigor the ace of Eisenwald who gained the nickname 'Shinigami' because he only takes assassination missions."

"Neechan can you tell me what the man who went to break the seal looks like?"

"Of course. He was wearing a gray jacket over a black long sleeved shirt, black pants, black boots, and his hair is in a spiky ponytail. Why do you ask?"

'What's the plan? If I remember whose supposed to be handling this then something's up,.He can't break magical seals.' Naruto hid his thoughts and explained his question. "If he has to bring it back we might run into him on our way."

Erza slammed her fist onto Natsu's head in anger. "I made a mistake. If I had recognized the name Erigor earlier I could have beaten their plans out of them."

"I see. You want to stop Eisenwald from doing something evil with 'Lullaby', but you can't handle the entire guild by yourself. So you asked us for help." Gray summarized.

"Yes, the plan is to head straight to Eisenwald."

"Sounds interesting"

"Aye"

"Yosh! We're gonna kick their asses! Dattebayo!"

"I knew I should've stayed in the guild."

**Onibus Station**

Lucy, Naruto, Gray, Erza, and Happy walked through the station, trailed by a pair of Naruto clones with Erza's luggage as Lucy questioned Erza, "Where is Eisenwald's guild at?"

"I don't know. We are here to look for clues."

Happy looked up from his fish to ask Erza a question of his own. "Where's Natsu?" All of the team members freeze in shock and slowly swivel their heads towards the recently departed train as Happy summed up what they just realized. "And he's gone again."

"This is all my fault. I was too busy telling the story and forgot about him. Someone hit me." Erza hung her head in shame at her thoughtless actions.

"Don't beat yourself up about this Neechan, we've all done this before." Naruto tried to comfort Erza as she beat herself up over forgetting about Natsu.

**Train Car**

Natsu is still slumped in misery and pain as his motion sickness continues to wreak havoc to his stomach. He isn't even aware of the approaching man with his hands in the pockets of his black pants. He stops walking as he notices Natsu's guild mark. 'Fairy Tail? That's where Naruto is stationed isn't it. Troublesome, I hope he's nearby or else this will be a waste of time.' The man approaches Natsu, smiling, revealing himself to be the man from Erza's story that went to retrieve Lullaby. "You're part of a legal guild aren't you?" Suddenly he stomps his boot into Natsu's face as he looks on with a sneer. "They ain't all they're cracked up to be are they, Fairy! We've got a name for you guys where I'm from, it's flies."

Natsu ignites his hands while he jumps to his feet scowling at the mage. "Bastard." Natsu is interrupted as the train gives a jerk, bringing back his motion sickness and extinguishing his flames.

"What's with that magic it's pathetic." a dark purple magical seal appeared at Kageyama's feet, "This is how you use magic! _Shadow Punch!" _Three arms made out of shadows extend from Kageyama's shadow to deliver a triple uppercut to Natsu. The train suddenly screeches to a halt, causing Natsu and Kageyama to fall and for a demonic looking flute crowned with a three-eyed skull to fall out of Kageyama's jacket.

**Onibus Train Station a few minutes earlier**

Erza is arguing with a station worker to convince him to stop the train. "Don't be ridiculous we can't just stop the train because one person didn't get off." The station manager tells the armored mage.

Erza loses her patience with the man, "We don't have time for this. Happy pull the lever."

"Aye sir!" Happy flies to the lever and pulls it, stopping the train.

"Yosh! Let's go after Natsu." Naruto created another pair of clones. "Take all of our luggage to the hotel and don't screw around on the way!"

Lucy hung her head in defeat, "This got completely out of hand."

"Indeed." Gray agrees with Lucy, unaware that he had once again stripped. Lucy however, notices.

"What happened to your clothes?!"

**Train Car**

Natsu and Kageyama proceed to pick themselves off of the floor when Natsu notices the flute. "What's that?"

"You saw it, troublesome."

Natsu pounds his fists together igniting them in the process, "Shut up! You got me good back there. Time to return the favor." Natsu charges Kageyama, fist ablaze, to deliver a crushing right hook right in his face. Kageyama goes flying down the aisle, bouncing off of the seats and destroying them in the process.

'Shit, that bastard got me good.' Kageyama struggles to his with a bloody nose as Natsu approaches him.

"Fly Punch." Natsu raises a clenched fist in satisfaction until he hears an announcement over the speakers.

"That emergency stop was a false alarm. The train will start moving again in a few minutes."

"Shit, I'm outta here." Natsu turns to grab his stuff and turns to leave.

"Wait, you troublesome bastard. You picked a fight with Eisenwald, don't think that you can get away with it."

"Same to you bastard. You insulted Fairy Tail I won't let you get away with that. Next time I'll fight you outside and I'l-" Natsu was interrupted by his motion sickness and was forced to jump out the window while he could still move.

**Outside the Train**

Erza was driving a magical four-wheeler with Lucy, Naruto, and Happy in the cabin and Gray, once again fully clothed, on the roof. As they tried to chase down the train Natsu came crashing out of one of the widows, surprising them. "Natsu, why did you jump out of the window?" Before Gray could get an answer Natsu's head crashed into his, knocking them both off of the four-wheeler and forcing Erza to stop. She immediately voices her concern for the 'missing' member of the team.

"Natsu are you okay?"

Natsu responded from his place on the ground, still disoriented. "Aye."

Gray groaned as he stood up while rubbing his forehead. "That hurt, jerk."

Natsu leapt to his feet in anger. "Shut up! You left me behind. What the hell!?"

"At least you're unhurt." Erza placed an arm around Natsu before clanging his head off of her breastplate to give him her version of a hug.

"Ow, that hurt. And what do you mean, unhurt? I got into a fight with a weird guy on the train. He said he was from Eisenwald or something, whatever that means."

Erza proceeded to slap Natsu."YOU IDIOT! Eisenwald is the people we're after."

"This is the first I've heard of it" Natsu muttered while rubbing his stinging cheek.

"I just explained it. Listen when other people are talking."

"Uh Neechan, he was unconscious during your explanation, because you knocked him out, remember." Erza stopped her rant after Naruto spoke up in Natsu's defense and immediately became ashamed.

"I'm sorry. Please hit me."

"Neechan, we don't have time for that." Naruto jumped into the driver's seat and strapped himself in. "Let's go. If he was on the train we should be able to catch up in no time."

"Oi, Natsu. What did the guy look like?" gray questioned.

"Nothing special, but he did have this weird flute with a three-eyed skull on it." Lucy froze in fear at Natsu's words.

"Lucy what's the matter?"

"I've heard of that flute. Lullaby, the curse song. Death magic."

"Curse song? Like a magical song?"

"I've only read about them in books, but one of the forbidden magics is death curses, right?"

Erza expanded on Lucy's words, "Yes, magic that sucks the life out of the person it is cast upon."

"Lullaby is even worse. Anyone who hears its song will be killed." This new information stuns the Fairy Tail mages. Naruto is the first to recover.

"Those sick fuckers. Everyone hop and brace yourselves. I'm gonna give it all it can take and then some." As Naruto sped down the tracks at top speed he couldn't help but to wonder, 'What the hell are they planning?'

**New Train Car**

Kageyama picks up Lullaby and walks over to another car looking for a new seat. The only open seat has someone with a newspaper covering their face. "Is this seat taken?"

"No, go ahead."

The man doesn't move his paper as Kageyama sits down. "The fox basks in the sun." Kageyama raises an eyebrow, but gives the proper response.

"The shadow hides in the dark." The newspaper is put down revealing a familiar whiskered face. "It's been a while, so tell me what the hell is going on here, Shikamaru." Shikamaru describes his current situation in only one word,

"Troublesome"

**A/N: Well that's the first chapter to my first story. I'm not a professional so don't complain about any mistakes you see just send me a PM and I will fix it. Please remember that this is for entertainment. Thanks for reading.**


	2. Chapter 2: Shadow Hidden in the Dark

**Hidden Guild: Silent Leaf**

**Chapter 2: Shadow** **Hidden in the Dark**

**Disclaimer: I own neither Fairy Tail nor Naruto they belong to Mashima Hiro and Kishimoto Masashi respectively**

**A/N: I'm surprised by the amount of people who like this story and appreciate it. Because all of the Naruto characters are mages there will be some differences on what they can do, the relationships and the backgrounds for most characters. I will try to keep their personalities the same to the best of my abilities. Alright explanation so I won't get asked about it later over, so let's get on with the chapter.**

"Talking"

'Thinking'

**"Demon Talking"**

_'Flashback'_

_Magic/Magic Item_

**Location/Time Change**

**Kunugi Station**

Passengers and staff are seen fleeing from the train in a mob as their luggage is thrown after them. They rush from the station and into the town as a group of men stand and watch. One of the men, presumably the leader, gives orders to the others. He is a tall, lean, and slightly muscular man with spiky, silver hair that hangs down on the left side of his face. His attire consists of a black scarf, no shirt, a long ragged hakama skirt under a black cloth with a shorter cream skirt used as a belt, geta sandals, and bandages around his forearms leading to black gloves with a gray 'X' on the back. He has dark eyes and sharp features with tattoos under his eyes, on his torso, and down arms. Over his shoulder was a large scythe with a jagged blade and skull on top. "This train now belongs to Eisenwald. Get rid of everything. That means the luggage, passengers, and staff. All of it, gone. Resist and die."

'I hope this works or else I'm dead.' Shikamaru sits in an empty train car as a cloud of smoke dissipats above him. He stands up and goes to exit the train. "Erigor-san."

"Kageyama. I heard that you would be returning on this train." Erigor turned to face Shikamaru running an eye over the damaged car in the process. "This damage, did something happen?"

"I'll tell you later. Look at this." Shikamaru deflects the question by showing Erigor the magical flute, Lullaby. "I was able to break the seal guarding it."

The other guild members had gathered around to see their prize. "Ooh, so that's it."

Erigor took Lullaby from Kageyama. "This is the forbidden magic, Lullaby. Originally just a tool to assist in casting death curses, until the great dark mage Zeref turned it into a demon flute. The _Mass-Murder Magic_ that kills all who hear its sound, Lullaby. Now, let's start the operation." With those words the Eisenwald guild boards the recently stolen train to begin putting their plan in motion.

**Between Onibus and Kunugi**

A magical four-wheeler is seen roaring along next to the train tracks with a man in a white trench coat hanging onto the roof for dear life as a blonde man disregards both safety and the roads to get as much speed as possible out of the four-wheeler. As the man on the roof almost falls off after another sharp turn he turns to the driver and shouts at him, "Slow down, Naruto! This thing takes a ton of power just to move normally. If you keep putting this much power into it you're going to run out, no matter how freakishly large your reserves are."

Naruto grits his teeth as he tries to coax even more speed out of the machine. "I don't care. We can't let Erigor get his hands on Lullaby. If he does there's no telling what he will do or how many people he could kill." 'Dammit Shikamaru, your plan better work or else there is going to be a lot of blood on both of our hands.'

As Naruto continued to put the pedal to the metal, inside the cabin Natsu was once again feeling his motion sickness, Happy was stuck to the back of the seat, and only Lucy and Erza weren't affected by Naruto's crazy driving. Something about Naruto's actions and tone were confusing the newest addition to Fairy Tail which made her question his psuedo-sibling. "Erza, why is Naruto so worked up over this? I mean he is acting like it is his fault they have Lullaby."

Erza sighs before turning to Lucy. "Fairy Tail isn't Naruto's first guild. Nobody knows much, but from what we have managed to find out his old guild was destroyed by a dark guild." Lucy covers her mouth in shock as Erza explains Naruto's known history. "The guild was called 'White Fang' and was not very well known or strong. Naruto and his friends were the newest generation that was going to help build their reputation. Unfortunately, during one of their jobs, one of the members defeated a dark guild's member and got them jailed. The dark guild didn't take that very well and attacked White Fang at their guild hall. He wouldn't elaborate beyond that but from what we can tell from the records most of the senior members were overwhelmed and killed including the master." Lucy had tears in her eyes by the end of the story. "Naruto never completely got over that and now does whatever he can to protect people from dark guilds."

Lucy turned to look at the back of Naruto's head, now with a better understanding of her fellow blonde's determination, and promised herself that she would do her best to help her teammates.

**Clover**

A Naruto clone stood outside of the conference building for the masters' regular meeting holding a letter and a scrap of paper. 'Well according to Mira's directions this is the place. Now I have to find Gramps.' The scrap of paper was crumpled up and tossed into the air where it was shredded into confetti and carried into a nearby trashcan with a gust of wind.

Inside the building the Naruto clone quickly found Master Makarov drinking booze and eating while sitting on a table. "Oi, Gramps! Mira wanted me to give you this letter."

Makarov looked up to see Naruto holding out a letter. "Thank you Naruto. Are you real or a clone?"

"Clone."

"Thought so." Makarov took the letter and ran his finger around the seal activating the magical seal which would play the message. An image of Mira appeared and began to talk.

"Master! I'm glad you made it to the conference!"

As the message started playing the other masters crowded around to see what was going on as Makarov showed off Mira's image. "What do you think? This is our poster girl. Isn't she cute?" The other masters gave of appreciative whistles and "oohs" and "ahs" at Mira. Some of the masters had seen her before and commented on how she had filled out.

"Something wonderful has happened while you were gone, Master! You'll never believe it! Erza, Natsu, Gray, _and _Naruto have all formed a team! I think they might be the strongest team in Fairy Tail. I thought that you would like to know so I had Naruto make a clone to deliver this letter. Goodbye." When Mira's letter reached the part about Fairy Tail's newest team the Naruto clone pulled out a camera and took a picture of Makarov's shocked face while he tried to process what he had just found out.

"Wh-wha…?! With those words Makarov's brain fried, leaving him with an open jaw and stunned expression. All the while Naruto's clone continued to take pictures.

The master of the guild Quatro Cerberus, Goldmine, commented on what they had just learned. "It seems the fear that Fairy Tail might destroy a town could now be a reality."

Makarov fell onto his back, twitching. 'I-I can't believe it. A team with those four could easily destroy a city!' Makarov then realizes that Naruto's clone hadn't left. "Naruto!" The clone stops taking pictures as Makarov starts to give it instructions. "The conference ends today. I will be back tomorrow, so don't let anything happen until then."

The clone gives the master his signature foxy grin. "Sure thing, Gramps. Although my orders were to not dispel or do anything dangerous that might get me dispelled until I deliver these pictures. So boss might not get the message in time." At those words Makarov's last hope shriveled up like a leaf in a desert.

**Kunugi Station**

The passengers that were forced to leave the train are all crowded around the army forces sent to control the situation, yelling about what had happened. "A group of men carrying scythes came and stole the train after kicking us out. We know who they are. They're the dark guild that has been hanging around here lately. Please you have to help us."

On a nearby ridge Fairy Tail's strongest team was watching. "But why would they steal a train. It's fast, but it can only travel along the tracks. It would have made more sense to steal a carriage or a boat." Lucy wondered aloud.

"Sounds like Eisenwald is in a hurry to get somewhere." Gray mentioned while once again in his boxers.

"Why did you take your clothes off?"

The ice mage looks down and notices his current attire. "Oh, I didn't notice."

Naruto interrupted Lucy and Gray. "If they need to get somewhere fast using the train then their target must be along the tracks."

"But the army is on the job now so it is only a matter of time before they are caught." was Lucy's hopeful opinion.

"I don't think so, Lucy. These guys can't use magic while Eisenwald is an entire guild. They wouldn't stand a chance." Naruto informed Lucy from the driver's seat. "Let's go."

"Naruto you've been driving nonstop, let me drive." Erza asked, but Naruto knew that he didn't have a choice and that she was right.

"Okay, Neechan." They swapped places before Erza took off at a speed that wasn't as fast as Naruto's driving, but still pretty damn close.

**On the Stolen Train**

The blade of a scythe flashes before it cuts through one of the train's seats, forcing Shikamaru to dive out of the way. Erigor look down with distaste while spinning Lullaby in his left hand. "What do you mean there was a Fairy fly on the train? You let one of them see Lullaby and then you let them get away." Erigor raised his scythe to attempt another swing at the kneeling shadow mage.

"He doesn't know about the plan! Even if he did the plan is still unstoppable." Shikamaru pleads with Erigor so he doesn't try to kill him again, forcing him to blow his cover and escape.

Erigor swings the scythe, cutting a notch in both of Shikamaru's ears and making him grit his teeth at the pain. "We need to be sure. The plan will still be carried out."

Shikamaru shakily smiles in hope, "Then Oshibana Station is the place…" 'Come on. We need to stop there or else our plan is fucked.'

"There are some places that flies shouldn't buzz around. Go teach him a lesson." The guild responds in an affirmative grunt as Shikamaru climbs to his feet with a smirk.

'Gotcha.'

**Oshibana**

Erza sends the four-wheeler screeching around a street corner as Gray nearly flies off of the roof again. "Erza, slow down! Between you and Naruto the SE plug is ready to burst."

"Lullaby could kill scores of people if it is played. Just the sound of it is fatal." Was Erza's response as she continued to recklessly drive towards the station.

"What if you run out of power when we need it the most? Naruto is nearly empty. If we lose you we're out our heaviest hitters."

"Then I'll pick up a stick and use it to fight. Besides, it's not like you or Natsu aren't strong enough to handle anything we could encounter." Erza's words make Gray grind his teeth, but he knew that she was right.

Inside the cabin Natsu is lying in a pathetic heap on the floor as Naruto is slumped in the corner opposite of Lucy and Happy. Happy turns to Lucy, "Lucy, I think there's something I'm supposed to tell you."

Lucy curiously turns to Happy, "Really? What is it?"

"I forget. All I can remember is that it had something to do with you."

Natsu chose this time to try and escape out of the window forcing Lucy to grab him. "Stop, Natsu. You're going to fall out." Lucy tries in vain to haul the dragon slayer back inside. "Would it kill you to help me, Naruto?"

Naruto gives a weak, apologetic smile to Lucy. "Sorry Lucy, but I might have gone a little overboard while I was driving. I'm down to under half of my power and need to rest up for the fight."

Meanwhile Happy continued to wrack his brains for what he was supposed to tell Lucy. "If it wasn't Lucy is nauseating what else could it be? Lucy's weird? A fish? Delicious? Healthy? Weird? Weirdo?

"Why do you keep saying that I'm a weirdo?!" Lucy starts to shout at Happy after dragging Natsu back inside.

"What is that?" Erza notices the smoke in the distance coming from the direction the station is supposed to be in and starts to pump out more power.

**Oshibana Station**

"Please stay back it is dangerous here." a station worker with a megaphone stood in front of the station shouting orders. "The station is temporarily closed due to a derailment. Please leave the premises." Erza walked up to the worker and put her hand on his shoulder to get his attention.

"Tell me. What's going on inside the station?"

"Huh? Who are y-? " the station worker was unable to finish his question before Erza grew impatient with him and head-butted him unconscious. She continued to use this method with two more workers before she got an answer. Meanwhile Lucy had Natsu slung over her shoulders as she watched Erza's somewhat brutal methods.

"She doesn't have much use for people who don't answer right away, does she?"

"You're starting to understand her now." Gray stood with his arms crossed once again wearing only his boxers.

"Gray, your clothes." Naruto informed the exhibitionist of his current lack of attire.

Erza returned from beating the answers out of the station's staff. "Eisenwald's inside. Let's go."

"Yosh!"

"Right."

"Aye!"

"Wait, why am I in charge of Natsu?"

"Because you're the new guy, Lucy." was Naruto's response.

"I'm a girl." Lucy dejectedly mumbled as she dragged Natsu inside after the others.

Erza informed the others of what had happened. "A small military unit went in to try and stop Eisenwald earlier, but haven't returned yet."

"Eisenwald probably wiped the floor with them. Who sends a small unit of regular army to fight an entire dark guild?" Was Naruto's opinion as they approached the stairs. There they found the beaten military unit. "Called it. These guys never had a chance."

As they walked into the main platform they heard the sound of a man chuckling. "So you did come after all, Fairy Tail flies." The entire Eisenwald guild was waiting for them with dark looks in their eyes.

Lucy went wide-eyed in fear at the amount of mages assembled. "Th-there's so many of them."

Erza, a fully clothed Gray, and Naruto were unimpressed by their numbers as Erza focused on the tall silvered haired man sitting on the train holding a scythe. "You. Are you Erigor?" Erigor's only reply was another dark chuckle.

Lucy tried, in vain, to snap Natsu out of his motion sickness induced stupor. "Wake up, Natsu. It's time to work."

"It's no use. Natsu went from a train, to the four-wheeler, to you. It's a triple knockout combo." Happy informed Lucy.

"I'm considered transportation?!"

Shikamaru's face turned into a scowl, "You troublesome flies. Because of you Erigor got mad at me." At the sound of his voice Natsu regained coherency.

"What are you bastards planning to do with Lullaby?" Naruto angrily shouted at the dark guild. "Tell us and we may take it easy on you."

Erigor laughed and flew up to the station's speakers. "You don't know? What do train stations have?"

"He's flying." Lucy stated in shock.

"He's using _Wind Magic._ Just like Naruto." Happy pointed out.

Erza was more focused on what Erigor was implying, "Are you planning to broadcast Lullaby?!"

Erigor once again laughed at the Fairy Tail mages. "Thousands of nosy people are outside this station right now. Maybe if I were even to raise the volume the whole town might hear it. The Curse Song."

Naruto struggled to stay calm and keep his voice even at Erigor's words. "You would commit mass-murder on thousands of innocent people. Why?!"

Shikamaru's eyes widened at Naruto's question. 'Shit, if Erigor tells him the reason he's doing this Naruto will go berserk. I didn't tell him because he would have ignored the plan and try to kill Erigor. If he finds out now he might be mad enough to use _that_.'

Erigor, oblivious to the consequences, answered Naruto's question. "For cleansing. A cleansing of fools who flaunt their rights while living their lives. Unaware that some people have had those rights stolen. It is a sin to live obliviously in this unfair world. So the Shinigami has come to punish them.

Naruto stood with his head bowed, his hands clenched into fists so tightly that the knuckles were white. His entire body was shaking with rage as his eyes flashed from blue to red back to blue like a camera's shutter. His spoke in a strained voice, "Your rights were taken away because you kept taking illegal jobs! How will this return your rights?!

"We don't want rights. We want power! With that we can wipe the past clean and control our future."

Naruto's small control over his temper snapped and his impulsive nature kicked in. "I WON'T LET YOU! _SONIC RUSH!_" Naruto created a magical seal at his feet before blasting forward in a gust of wind to tackle Erigor. Erigor used his magic to avoid the berserker rush and laughed at Naruto as he stood in a crouch, eyes still flashing.

'Dammit, Naruto's gonna break _it _out if I don't do something fast.' Shikamaru crouched down and put a hand onto the floor to increase his shadow's size. "Sorry flies but you're going to die before you can see the age of darkness. _Shadow Possession_." Shikamaru's shadow advanced towards the Fairy Tail mages, specifically Lucy. Suddenly, a recovered Natsu shot to his feet and broke the shadows with his flames. "Bastard…"

Natsu stood with his arm raised in a clenched fist as pieces of the broken shadows rained down around him. "I knew I recognized that voice."

"Nice recovery, Natsu!" Lucy cheered in relief

"Oh, look at all these people."

Naruto appeared at their side with his eyes back to their normal blue. "They're enemies, Natsu. All of them."

Natsu's face grew dark as he slammed a fist into his palm with a smirk. "Sounds interesting."

Erigor began to rise into the air, "I leave the rest to you. Show them the terror of a dark guild." Erigor then disappeared in a gust of wind.

"Yosh! Natsu. Gray. Let's see who can beat the most of these punks." Naruto got into a crouch as Gray and Natsu readied themselves to join him, until they were interrupted by Erza.

"Not now. Natsu. Gray. The two of you go after Erigor. If the two of you work together you will be able to beat 'The Shinigami'." Erza turned to the two mages who were currently engaged in another one of their glaring contests. "Are you listening to me?"

The pair suddenly became friends again at Erza's words. "Aye."

"Then go!"

Natsu and Gray quickly left to chase after Erigor. As Eisenwald watched them run away they realized that they were going after Erigor and one of them conjured up shadowy threads and started to chase after them. "I, the great Rayule, will take them down."

'If I stay here I'll get my ass kicked by Naruto for not telling him about Erigor's reasoning, this is so troublesome.' "I'm coming too. That bastard has to pay." Shikamaru put his hand on the ground forming a gold and black magical seal, before he disappeared into his own shadow.

"We'll hurry after them after we finish up here. Naruto have you calmed down?" Erza explained their plan to Lucy before checking on Naruto.

"Yeah, sorry about that Neechan." Naruto brought his right hand up holding a swirling ball made completely of wind. "I bet I can take out more of them than you can."

"We'll see about that, little brother." Erza accepted Naruto's challenge as she raised her hand, creating a red magical seal and summoning a sword.

The Eisenwald guild members started chuckling amongst themselves. "What can the three of you do against an entire guild? Try to fight and we'll pluck your wings 'Fairies'."

"Try insulting Fairy Tail again and you won't live to see tomorrow!" was Erza's response.

"So what, you're a magical swordsman. We have a ton of those on our side." Eisenwald's swordsmen charged Erza unaware of the terrible mistake they were making. Erza charged through the swordsmen defeating them easily. Some of the mages tried ranged magic, but Erza requipped a spear and defeated them also. Next she requipped to twin swords as she continued to effortlessly cut down the Eisenwald members.

"Now she is using twin swords. Her requipping is so fast." One of the members commented.

"Don't forget about me bastards!" With a cry Naruto joined the fray, blasting enemies away with his wind ball and creating clones to fight the Eisenwald members. Cries of, "_Spiraling Wind Sphere!_" were miced into the chaotic melee. As the mages tried to fire ranged attacks at Naruto he responded with his own. "_Air Discs!" _with a throwing motion Naruto whipped discs of air that cut through their magic and embedded themselves into the mages arms and legs. "Ha! 29! How many do you have, Neechan?"

Erza struck down another mage with her swords, "34. You're losing your touch, Naruto."

Naruto clucked his teeth as he was surrounded by the opposing mages. 'This should even the score.' Naruto jumped into the air before striking the ground with a spinning axe kick. "_Tornado Touchdown!_" a huge tornado formed around Naruto's leg in midair and when he landed surged outwards, scattering the enemy mages like bowling pins. "39! Hurry up Lucy or you're going to miss out on all of the fun."

'He finds this fun?' Lucy wondered about Naruto's sanity, but still pulled out one of her keys. "Alright then. Open, Gate of the Giant Crab, Cancer!" An orange skinned man with his black hair braided in red cornrows that were tied up to look like crab claws appeared. He is wearing black pants with a gold chain on the right side and a hairdresser's bag on the left, a striped blue shirt, black boots, and green sunglasses. He has six crab legs sprouting out of his back and is holding a pair of scissors as he appears in a flash of light.

"Another fight, ebi?" Cancer questions with a snip of his scissors.

"Take them down with style." Lucy requested with a smirk.

The Eisenwald mages waste no time and rush to attack. Cancer turns with a glint on his sunglasses. He rushes through the mages while sniping his scissors, leaving behind destroyed weapons and mages with no hair on the top of their heads. "Nice cut, ebi."

"Hahaha. Nice job, Lucy. That's the spirit." Naruto and his clones continued to wreak havoc within the Eisenwald mages' forces, laughing the entire time. "I got 67, Neechan."

Erza slashed another mage down with an axe. "I have 75. This is taking too long. I'll take them all out at once." With those words a seal formed under her feet as she started to glow with a golden light. Her armor came off and was being replaced with another set.

The Eisenwald members looked on with hearts in their eyes. "Her armor's coming off."

Naruto gained a tic mark on his forehead and he pulled his fist back, "Look over here you perverted bastards! _Gale Fist!" _Naruto brought his fist forward as if he were throwing a punch which launched a compressed blast of air in the shape of a fist. Taking out the immobile dark mages easily.

Meanwhile Happy explained Erza's magic to Lucy, "Most swordsmen only requip their weapons when they fight, but Erza can requip magical armor while she fights. That's her magic, _The Knight._"

Erza's new armor consisted of a small breastplate composed of feather-shaped plates pointing upwards with a large metal flower on the front that extends along her hips. There are metal straps on her biceps and large plated gauntlets with feather shapes at the end. A white long skirt goes around her waist covered by decorative metal plates that also look like feathers, plated boots that have wing shaped ornaments, a neck guard made of feather-like plates, and a tiara with large metal wings on the sides. On her back are a pair of large metal wings made of metal feathers that get larger at the edges. She slowly rises into the air as she summons multiple swords to float around her in a circle. "Dance, my swords." as the swords start to glow and pick up speed Erza makes a slashing motion with the twin swords in her hands, "_Circle Sword!_" The swords fly out and take out most of the mages.

Naruto sighs when he sees this and dispels his clones with a wave of his hand. 'There goes the contest. Neechan brought out the big guns and just one-shot most of the mages. That means I lose, again.'

Lucy watched, wide-eyed, at the impressive display of power. "Whoa, she took most of them out with one move."

Only two Eisenwald members remained a black haired and whiskered mage and a fat green haired one. The one with black hair and whiskers gathered magic in his hands before charging Erza. "You have to deal with me now!"

His companion tried to call him back, but was too late. "Wait, yhere's no doubt. She is the strongest woman in Fairy Tail… 'Titania, Queen of the Fairies' Erza." While he was talking Erza effortlessly defeated the man he was trying to warn.

Lucy looked on with stars in her eyes, "Amazing. I think I might fall for her."

Naruto wiped a drop of blood from his nose at Lucy's comment. "Neechan does have that effect on people."

"Huh, Naruto are you hurt?"

"I'm fine Lucy, just a little backlash from using so many clones."

The last remaining Eisenwald mage ran from the platform and fled down the corridor. Erza requipped back to her normal armor and noticed him. "He might be heading to Erigor. Lucy go after him."

"Eh. Me?"

Erza glared at Lucy with a dark glint to her eyes. "Please."

"I'm going!" Lucy and Happy fled from Erza's gaze and chased the mage.

After she left both Naruto and Erza fell to their knees, making Naruto chuckle. "I guess we both kinda overdid it with the four-wheeler and fighting eh, Erza-oneechan."

"You might be right, little brother. But I still won."

"You always do, Neechan. You always do."

"Lucy. Natsu. Gray. We're gonna have to leave the rest to you." With that the "siblings" sat down to take a breather and try and recover as much power as possible.

**A Few Minutes Later Outside the Station**

Naruto approached the crowd holding a megaphone. "Everyone, listen! The station has been taken over by a group of dark mages who are planning to broadcast a magical song that kills everyone who hears it! Leave now and run as far away as you can! That is all!" With those words the citizens began to flee in terror.

Naruto was approached by the station workers that Erza had knocked out earlier. "Why would you tell them that? You just caused a panic."

Naruto turned, and still using the megaphone, answered them. "It's better than everybody dying! You should leave too!"

Naruto looked on in satisfaction at the fleeing mob of people. 'That solves that problem, your move Erigor.' Feeling the wind pick up he turns back to the station only for his jaw to drop in shock. "Why the hell is the station surrounded by wind?! I have to warn boss." With that the Naruto clone vanished in a puff of smoke.

**Oshibana Station Platform**

Naruto slams the whiskered mage back against the wall. "What the hell do you mean you can't take down the barrier?!"

"It's impossible. You know we can't take it down. Only Erigor can do that." Was the weak response.

"Naruto! Erza!" Gray rushes to the railing and shouts down to his fellow mages.

"Gray. Weren't you with Natsu? Where is he?" Erza questioned as Naruto drops the dark mage and joins her.

"We split up. But forget about that. Eisenwald's real target is Clover, where Gramps and the rest of the masters are. They plan to use Lullaby to kill them all!"

"I got that out of this guy." Naruto kicks the downed mage, "Problem is the _Wind Wall_. We don't have a dispeller and if I try to counter it anything that I make gets sucked away before it is strong enough to do anything."

"I just saw it," Gray jumps down to join the others, "if you try to force your way through you'll be shredded."

"This isn't good. As we speak Erigor is getting closer to Clover while we can't do anything." Erza suddenly has a revelation. "Wait a minute. There was someone in Eisenwald named Kage. He broke Lullaby's seal by himself. He must be a dispeller. We have to find him."

Naruto winces at Erza's words. 'Dammit, that part of the plan backfired. Shikamaru couldn't break a seal if his life depended on it.' Naruto takes the lead, "Alright let's go find him."

**Station Hallway**

Shikamaru is travelling by shadow to follow Natsu and looks on when he finally loses his temper and starts to destroy everything in sight. "Erigor, where are you hiding?!" Natsu continues to rant and destroy the walls of the station, ignoring the doors and making his own.

'Troublesome, he's worse than Naruto was back in the day. Hasn't he ever heard of a door?' Shikamaru's shadow approaches Natsu's back as he rises out of it, 'I should let him go, but that would screw the plan even more and it's already gone to hell enough as it is. Damn you Erigor and your _Wind Wall._' Shikamaru then kicks the back of Natsu's head sending him into a pile of crates. "That's for the train you troublesome bastard."

Natsu climbed out of the crates with an advertisement stuck around his neck. "You again?"

"I've figured out your magic. You add fire to your body to increase your destructive power. That's pretty rare." Shikamaru taunts Natsu.

Natsu ignites his head to destroy the advertisement. "I _really _want to beat you up, but I don't have the time. Where is Erigor?"

"Good question. If you beat me I might tell you." Shikamaru pulls his hands out of his pockets, 'Come on, and if you're anything like Naruto then this fight will definitely bring the others... or bring the station down onto our heads.' A magical seal appears at his feet. "_Shadow Punch!"_

Natsu jumps to avoid the attack, "You're going to tell me after I beat you up. Talk about killing two birds with one stone. Now I'm all fired up." Shikamaru starts sending his shadows after Natsu, but is unable to land a hit.

'Troublesome bastard. I'm going as fast as I can and haven't been able to land a hit. If this doesn't get them to show I don't know what will.' Shikamaru places both of his hands on the ground, 'I hope he is as strong as you said he was Naruto.' "_Shadow Snakes! _You can't dodge these. They'll follow you wherever you go."

As the snakes approach Natsu he smirks before slamming his fists together. "I'll just have to break them then. _Fire Dragon's Wing Attack!_" Natsu gathered flames to his hands as he charged. His arms swung forward pulling the flames in the process like a pair of whips. The _Shadow Snakes_ were shattered. Natsu stood up with his eyes a demonic red hidden in shadows, before he leapt forward with a flaming fist.

'Dammit, I didn't expect him to it that easily!' Shikamaru was backed into the wall and as Natsu approached he crossed his arms to brace for the hit. Natsu delivered a vicious straight punch that sent Shikamaru through the wall in a burst of flames.

Natsu walked through the rubble of his last attack towards the burnt and beaten form of Shikamaru. "Looks like I won. Now tell me where Erigor is like you promised."

'That felt like one of Lee's magic punches, how troublesome.' "You idiot. Erigor isn't in the station anymore." Shikamaru slowly pushes himself into a sitting position. 'Now all that's left is for Naruto to beat Erigor and get Lullaby to Sai and the plan will be complete.'

Erza, Gray, and Naruto approach the pair with Erza in the lead. "Good job, Natsu. We need him."

Even Gray offered a compliment. "Way to go, you shitty flamer."

"Huh? What's going on?" Natsu looked at the approaching mages in condusion.

Naruto brought up the rear. "No time to explain. We were just looking for him."

Erza drew one of her swords and held it against Shikamaru's throat with a deadly look in her eye. "We want you to remove the _Wind Wall,_ now. Every time you answer no you gain a new cut. Understand?"

Naruto covered Natsu's mouth before he could comment as he looked at Shikamaru. 'Dammit this got out of control too fast. Come on Shikamaru you're a genius, you've got to be able to talk your way out of this one.'

Shikamaru's eyes darted between Erza's sword and eyes, finding both of them to be iron hard. 'Shit, they think that I'm a dispeller! I can't break the _Wind Wall_. I'll have to stall until I can come up with a plan.' "Alright I'll h-." Shikamaru's response was cut off as he coughed up blood, surprising the light mages. 'Fuck, who the hell stabbed me?' was his last coherent thought before he passed out.

Sticking out of Shikamaru's back was a dagger, and sticking out of the wall was the guild member Lucy was supposed to be chasing. His hand was still held the in same positiom that he had used it to stab Shikamaru. Erza grabbed Shikamaru's form as Naruto and Gray rushed forward. Natsu stood frozen in shock at what he had just witnessed. "Kage! Stay with us. We need your help." Erza tried in vain to revive Shikamaru.

Naruto turned to look at the man who stabbed Shikamaru. His eyes turned red and his pupils became slits. "Is this how you treat your friends?!" The mage tried to slip back into the wall, but Naruto destroyed it with a _Spiraling Wind Sphere_ before crushing the mage in his fury. "Is this how your guild works?!"

Erza lifts his head up in an attempt to revive him. "Kage, you have to stay with us."

"Shit, it's no use Erza. He's unconscious." Gray's attempts to calm Erza have no effect as she starts to throttle the shadow mage.

"We can't let him die. He has to take down the barrier."

This is the scene that Lucy and Happy walk in on. "Umm… Is this a bad time?"

Naruto brought them up to speed, "Erigor's target is the guild master's meeting, we are trapped inside a giant wind barrier, and our only hope of breaking said barrier just got stabbed in the back and is currently unconscious."

"What! Erigor is targeting regular meeting?"

They group moved to the front of the station where they could see the _Wind Wall. _Erza and Naruto removed Shikamaru's jacket and shirt so they could bind his wound. As Gray showed Lucy, Natsu and Happy the barrier. "We're completely cut off from reaching Clover and nothing we've got will work."

Natsu ignites his fist and punches the barrier. It doesn't do anything to it and sends him backwards with cuts on his arm. Making Gray shake his head at him. "Idiot. That's what happens when you try to break through."

Erza knelt over Shikamaru's bandaged form. "Please Kage, you have to help us."

Natsu continues to try and break through the wind with his magic. "Dammit! I will break through." Natsu punches and kicks the barrier with his magic but is eventually sent flying back without accomplishing anything.

"You idiot. Strength won't do any good here." Gray says.

Lucy turns to him in desperation. "We need to hurry. Can't you freeze it or Naruto counter it with magic?"

Gray shakes his head, "I would have already done that and Naruto tried but couldn't make anything strong enough to stop it."

Natsu gets back up and starts to charge the barrier once again before he is stopped by Naruto. "Stop that, you idiot. You getting shredded won't solve anything. Unless you've discovered a way to teleport calm down and help us think up a plan."

Natsu's eyes light up at Naruto's words as he rushes over to Lucy and grabs her shoulders. "That's it! Celestial Spirits. I was able to teleport through their world back at Everlue's mansion. We could do that again here."

"Most people suffocate and die if they do that though. Also the gates only open where there's a celestial mage." Seeing Natsu's confused expression at her explanation Lucy elaborates, "In order to travel through the gates like you want we would need another celestial mage outside the barrier."

Natsu still didn't understand. "That's confusing. Just hurry up and do it."

"I just said that it's impossible. Besides, a human entering the Celestial Spirit World would be a serious breach in the contracts. Last time it didn't matter because it was Everlue's key."

During Lucy's explanation Happy remembered something very important that he was supposed to tell her. "AH! Lucy I just remembered what I was supposed to tell you earlier."

"What is it?"

Happy reaches into his backpack and pulls out a golden key in triumph. "This!"

"That's Virgo's key!" Lucy crouches down and starts to pinch Happy's cheek "Don't you know that it's wrong to steal?"

Happy tries to explain himself. "No. Virgo told me she wanted you to have it."

Lucy let's go of Happy's cheek in surprise. "Really?"

Gray walks over, "Ugh. We don't have time for this."

"You think of a way out of here or have anything better to do while we're stuck?" Naruto inquired.

"No."

"Then quit your bitchin'."

Happy explains what happened to Lucy. "Everlue was arrested so the contract was broken. She came to my house and said that she wants a contract with you, Lucy."

"I'm glad to hear it, but we don't have time for this. We need to find a way out of here."

"But…" before Happy can finish Lucy starts to pinch his cheeks again.

"Shut up. Cats should stick to meowing." Lucy pulls on Happy's cheeks while surrounded by a dark aura making Naruto and Gray back away a little.

Happy hung his head, depressed, as he mentioned his idea. "I just thought that since Virgo can dive underground we could tunnel our way under the barrier."

Everyone looked at Happy in shock at this development. Gray turns to Lucy. "Is that true?!"

"I had forgotten about that." Lucy picks Happy up and starts to wave him about. "You're so smart, Happy. Why didn't you say so earlier?"

Happy deadpanned at Lucy. "Because you were pinching me."

"I'm sorry and will make it up to you later." Lucy takes the key from Happy and begins to open the gate. "Open, Gate of the Maiden. Virgo."

In a flash of light a cute, petite girl with short pink hair and blue eyes wearing a maid's outfit and shackles with broken chains around her wrists appeared, surprising those who had seen her before. "You called, Mistress?"

Naruto raised an eyebrow and turned to Natsu. "This is the 'gorilla maid' that you and Lucy fought?"

Natsu walks up to Virgo. "You've lost weight."

"I am Virgo. I'm sorry for causing you trouble earlier."

Lucy looks at the pair incredulously. "Lost weight? She's a completely different person. You're appearance…"

Virgo turned to Lucy. "I'm a loyal spirit who takes whichever appearance my master prefers."

"Virgo, we're in a hurry. Can we make the contract later?"

"Of course, Mistress."

"Don't call me that."

"Queen?"

"No."

"Princess?"

"That's fine."

Naruto's brow gains a tic. "Just get on with it already!"

"Of course." with that Virgo began to drill a hole through the station floor.

Erza walks up to Lucy to congratulate her. "Well done, Lucy." Erza pulls her head in for a hug and accidently clangs it off of her breastplate.

"Yosh! Let's go through the hole." Naruto begins to take the lead before he notices Natsu picking up Shikamaru. "Uh Natsu, what are you doing?"

Natsu positions Shikamaru's arm over his shoulder before answering. "I won't feel right if he dies after fighting me."

"Fine let's go."

**Outside the ****_Wind Wall_**

Gray covers his face as they climb out of the hole. "We're out. Now let's hurry up and catch Erigor."

Lucy crouches into the wind, "The wind is so strong."

Virgo grabs Lucy's skirt and holds it down while her own gets blown up by the wind allowing Gray and Naruto to see her underwear which gives the pair nosebleeds. "Princess, your underwear might show."

"What about yours?"

Shikamaru regains conscious while lying down on the street. "It's no use. It's impossible for you to catch up with Erigor now. He wins." 'Dammit the plan failed and I can't use the backup plan like this, troublesome.'

Erza looks around and notices something. "Where are Natsu and Happy?"

"Naruto's gone too." Gray mentions before said mage pulls up in a different four-wheeler.

"Natsu and Happy went after Erigor using _Max Speed _and Natsu's fire as rockets. Eisenwald trashed our old ride so we're gonna have to borrow this one. Hurry up and get in we're wasting time." Erza and Gray lift Shikamaru and put him in the cabin next to Lucy before they climb in themselves. Once everyone was in Naruto floored it and jumped onto the tracks. 'Hang on Natsu, we're coming.'

Further on down the tracks Naruto's vision begins to blur and he almost drives off of the edge. Inside the cabin everyone was thrown around. Naruto stops the car confusing those inside. "Gray, I can barely see the road. Neechan and I used up to much magic, I need you to drive or else I'm going to crash, Dattebayo." with that Naruto falls out of his seat.

"Naruto!" The Fairy Tail mages rushed out to help their exhausted guild mate. Erza picks Naruto up and carries him back to the cabin. "Gray you heard him. You're going to have to drive." Erza climbs back into the cabin and sets Naruto next to Shikamaru. "Alright Gray, we're ready."

"Got it." Gray straps the SE plug onto his arm then takes off down the tracks. Heading towards the giant column of fire further down the tracks.

Shikamaru glances sideways at Naruto. 'You have way more magic than that, Naruto. What are you planning, you troublesome bastard?'

**Natsu and Erigor's Fight**

A shirtless, scuffed, and bloody Natsu stands next to Happy as they look down at Erigor's burned form. They turn to look at the approaching four-wheeler at Lucy's shout. "Oh, it took you long enough. The fight is already over."

Lucy helps Erza out of the cabin as Shikamaru helps Naruto. "Erza. Naruto. Are you okay?"

Erza uses Lucy's shoulder for support as she answers her. "We're fine. You don't have to worry. Right Naruto?" Naruto gives a thumbs up as Shikamaru supports him.

Shikamaru and Naruto hang back as Gray, Lucy, and Erza congratulate Natsu for his victory. "Now what? With Erigor beaten I can't finish the plan, troublesome." Lullaby glows purple from its three eyes catching the pair's attention.

"Oi, Shika." Shikamaru looks at Naruto who apparently had recovered from his 'exhaustion'. "You remember Plan B?" Shikamaru narrows his eyes at Naruto then looks at the other mages. They were busy watching Gray and Natsu squabble. "You have enough magic to pull it off?"

Shikamaru gains a smirk as he puts Naruto onto the ground in a sitting position. "It's troublesome, but I have enough." Shikamaru gets into the driver's seat and puts on the SE plug. He then barrels past the other mages while using his shadow to grab the forgotten flute. "You let your guard down, flies. Now the Lullaby is mine." With that he races down the tracks heading for Clover.

The mages stare after him in shock. Natsu was the first to recover. "That bastard!"

"After we saved him to!" Lucy was indignant at his actions.

Erza went back and helped Naruto to his feet. "Come on. We have to stop him."

As the mages began to chase after the four-wheeler's dust cloud Naruto thoughts went out to his friend. 'Good luck, Shika. If all goes to plan Lullaby will be taken care of.'

**_'On the Train after Natsu left_**

_"Alright Naruto how much do you know?" Shikamaru sat across from the Naruto clone with his hands folded under his chin._

_"Just the basics: You drew the short straw and were supposed to bounce around the dark guilds that could become a threat and sabotage them so that they could be arrested."_

_"Alright, let me tell you what is happening here. This is probably my last job and it is a big one. A lot of dark guilds have been looking for Lullaby throughout the years but none of them have been able to find it, until now. Eisenwald was the closest so I was told to infiltrate them eight months ago. They finally managed to find Lullaby, but it was guarded by a seal that they couldn't break. Knowing that it was only a matter of time until they found an actual dispeller, I had Sai contact Jiraya-sama." Shikamaru took out a folded piece of paper and handed it to Naruto. "He left me these instructions on how to break out Lullaby. The original plan was to give Lullaby to Erigor and have me and Sai attack them at Clover while they were leaving the train. Unfortunately, one of the mages at Fairy Tail overheard us and apparently has decided to take action." at this Shikamaru raised an eyebrow and motioned for Naruto to fill him in. _

_"Erza overheard you mention Erigor at a bar. She's here with me, Natsu, Gray, and a new girl, Lucy, who uses _Celestial Magic_." the Naruto clone supplied._

_"Troublesome. When Erigor learns of this he's going to want to make sure you can't interfere. There is a 94 percent chance that we will stop at Oshibana Station. When that happens Erigor will have you fight the entire guild. After you defeat him I will take the Lullaby and vanish into the town to meet up with Sai later so he can destroy it. If something goes wrong then there is a plan b. For Plan B, I will pretend to be taking Lullaby to the regular meeting with the false intention to use it on the masters. In reality I will be taking it to Sai who will pretend to defeat me and steal Lullaby, after which I will disappear and met up with him at the Clover Safe House. Got it?"_

_The Naruto clone nods. "I got it, and the boss will too." Panicked screams echo down the train cars. "Well looks like you're up. Good luck, Shikamaru." The clone then dispels himself creating a cloud of smoke.'_

**Clover outside the Meeting Building**

Shikamaru is seen panting outside of the meeting building next to his stolen four-wheeler. 'Shit, this really hurts. I better hurry up and find Sai before I run into someone who could recognize Lullaby.' Shikamaru's thoughts were interrupted by a hand being placed on his shoulder, shocking him. A short man wearing ridiculous orange clothes sat on the roof of the four-wheeler laughing at him. Before he could question the man he turned around and started muttering to himself.

"No, there's no time for this. I have to stop those fools before they destroy an entire town." With that he jumped off of the magical vehicle. "You should probably go back to the hospital too."

'Troublesome old man. Wait a minute, he's Makarov. Shit! If he recognizes Lullaby the whole plan will be ruined.' With that in mind Shikamaru tries to hide the flute behind him, but Makarov catches him doing so.

"Oh? What do you have there?"

"It's a flute. The hospital won't let me play it inside so I snuck out to play." Shikamaru starts sweating under Makarov's gaze. 'Come on, old man. Buy the story.'

"That's a creepy flute." was Makarov's only response.

"It may look odd, but it sounds wonderful." Shikamaru visibly relaxes, 'Thank Kami. He bought it.'

"I would love to hear a song. But I'm in a hurry, so could you play me a quick one?"

Shikamaru's blood froze at those words. He knew he was caught in his lie and couldn't leave without raising suspicions. 'Fuck! Why does this troublesome old man want to hear a song? I've got to stall.' "O-of course." Shikamaru began sweating heavily as he raised the flute to his lips, but doesn't play. His eyes nervously dart around the clearing, 'Sai. Naruto. Where the hell are you? If you don't show up soon I'm gonna have to make a break for it.'

Outside of the clearing the Fairy Tail Mages catch sight of Shikamaru with the flute in front of their master. "Master!" Before they could make a move an elderly, bald man wearing a pink spaghetti-strap shirt with small, white wings, a gold hoop necklace, and striped pink and purple shorts holds out his right arm, with a blue guild mark on his upper part, to stop them. As he turns to look at him they can see that he is wearing red lipstick and blush.

"Shh. The best part is coming up. Just watch quietly." The man then turned to the shirtless pair of Natsu and Gray who are hugging each other in fear. "You two are cute."

Lucy turned to Erza, "Who is that?"

"That's the master of Blue Pegasus, Bob." With those words Bob finally took notice of the female mages.

"Erza-chan, it's good to see you. You sure have grown."

"Hello, Master Bob."

"Hey Erza-chan, isn't Naru-chan with you?"

"Yes he's right…" Erza trails off as she turns to find an empty space next to her. Unseen by the others, Naruto was hidden in a tree over their heads, doing his best to remain unnoticed.

In the clearing Shikamaru was still unable to come up with a way out of this situation and Makarov was becoming impatient. "Well, hurry up. I'm in a rush."

Erza started to rush forward but was stopped by a man leaning against a tree with brown hair reaching his shoulders and wrinkles showing his age. He is clad in a pair of dark pants and shirt while wearing a pair of dark sunglasses, a spiked collar, and a tall, wide brimmed hat also with a spiked band around it. "Just be quiet and watch. This is about to get interesting."

"That's Quatro Cerberus's master, Goldmine!" Lucy exclaimed in shock.

Makarov glared at Shikamaru. "Well?"

'Shit, I'm going have to make a break for it and hope to find Sai.' Before Shikamaru could act Makarov started to speak.

"It won't change anything you know. The weak will always stay weak. But that isn't necessarily a bad thing. Humans are weak creatures by nature. That's why we form guilds. Why we have friends. We come together to live our lives to the fullest. Some people may run into more obstacles than others and take longer to arrive. But if you believe in tomorrow and try you can naturally gain strength. Then you'll be able to smile and live life to the fullest." Makarov's serious face turned into a big smile. "Without having to rely on that flute."

Shikamaru drops the flute and falls to his feet in relief. 'Thank Kami. I thought he was going to make me play the flute for a minute there.'

After his speech the Fairy Tail mages rushed to their master in joy. "Master! Gramps!"

Erza reached him first and grabbed him into a hug, clanging his head off of her breastplate. "That was amazing. Your words truly moved me."

While the mages were gathered celebrating Lullaby's eyes began to glow and give off a purple smoke that started to take shape into a monster. **"Kakaka. I grow tired of you gutless mages. I can't take it anymore! I'll eat you all myself!" **The true form of Lullaby was revealed. A massive beast with three glowing, purple eyes, two trunk-like legs and arms and a demonic, horned head. Throughout his body are many empty spaces. **"I will devour your souls!"**

The gathered mages looked on in shock. Shikamaru voiced his thoughts. "This wasn't in the briefing. How troublesome."

Bob giggled into his hand and said with a light-hearted tone, "Oh my. This is bad."

Goldmine took it a little more seriously, "That's a demon from the Book of Zeref."

The remaining guild masters fled the building as Lullaby regarded his surroundings. "Why did a monster come out of the flute?" Lucy questioned as she trembled in fear.

"That _is_ Lullaby, in the flesh. It's living magic, or Zeref's magic.

Lullaby crouched over the meeting building and regarded the mages before him. **"I'm starving. Now whose soul should I eat first?"**

Natsu looks at the demon in surprise. "What?" he then turns to Gray, "Are souls tasty?" Naruto smacked him over the head before he could get an answer.

"Focus, hothead. We need to beat Lullaby before it can kill anybody." Naruto gained a serious manner as he regarded the demon. 'I might have to use _that_ here, but there are too many witnesses. It will have to be a last resort.'

The demon let out a booming laugh, **"I've decided that I will eat all of your souls, mages." **Lullaby began to emit a horrible noise.

The four Fairy Tail mages rush into action. Erza swiftly requips into her Heaven's Wheel Armor and slashes Lullaby's leg with her twin swords making it roar in pain. Gray slammed his right fist into his left palm charging magical power and freezing the air around him. "_Ice Make Lance!" _with a cry he thrusts his hands forward, sending curved ice lances at Lullaby, impaling him in the process.

Natsu crouches down summoning flames around him, "Eat this." with a powerful leap he launches himself at Lullaby's head. He ignites his fist and rears back, _"Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!" _Natsu delivers a vicious right hook to Lullaby rocking it back on its feet.

"My turn." With a grin Naruto charges Lullaby creating clones as he goes. They all begin to form tornadoes around their arms, "Let's go!" the clones jump at Lullaby with their wind covered arms raised. _"Tornado Alley Touchdown!" _Multiple tornadoes appear when they land their punches, dispelling the clones in the process.

The mages continue their deadly dance, landing hit after hit as Lullaby is helpless to stop them. Lullaby started to gather magical energy while sucking the life out of the surrounding trees. Lucy and the guild masters looked on in fear. "It's going to start the lullaby!"

Lullaby roared in triumph, **"Your souls will be mine!" **but when the magic started the music that came out sounded broken and out of tune. **"What happened? Where is my great musical sound?" **Lullaby began to rampage as it realizes that it can't use its magic. It turns to the assembled masters and sends out a wave of flames.

Gray jumps in front of the mages and molds his magic. _"Ice Make Shield!" _A large flower-shaped shield of ice protects the masters, impressing them with his speed.

The flames start to focus on one point where Natsu is standing. He swallows the flames and wipes his mouth. "Now that I've eaten I'm all fired up." Lullaby attempts to punch Natsu, but he jumps onto its arm and starts to run at his head.

The mages prepare their final attacks as Erza requips to her Black Wing Armor and a long sword. Gray creates a large, spinning disc of ice that he launches at Lullaby, cutting through it like a buzz-saw. Erza slashes Lullaby's head, knocking it off balance. This allows Naruto to jump at its head and join Natsu. Together they gather fire and wind magic to launch a devastating _Unison Raid_. Speaking together they launch their attack, "With the _Fire Dragon's Brilliant Flame _and the _Spiraling Wind Sphere _put together they make the _Spiraling Dragon's Flaming Sphere!"_ With their combined attacks a massive, fiery explosion was created that incinerated Lullaby. Leaving only the flute behind, which was picked up in the jaws of a blurry, black and white cat that crushed it in its jaws before bringing it back to a young man hidden in the shadows. He stores the pieces into a pouch on his waist and then disappears.

The collective masters look on in shock at the destructive power they had just witnessed. "Amazing. One of Zeref's demons was defeated so easily."

Lucy looked on in awe as the smoke clears showing the four Fairy Tail mages that defeated the demon. "This is Fairy Tail's strongest team. Amazing, you guys are the best!"

Makarov laughs with pride, "What do you think? Incredible aren't they?"

As the Fairy Tail mages celebrate Master Bob turns to where Shikamaru was only to find that he had slipped away during the fighting. "Oh no, the cute mage disappeared. This isn't good he was still hurt."

Goldmine shakes his head in disbelief. "I'm not sure what happened, but it looks like we owe one to Fairy Tail.

Naruto glances behind him then quickly looks back to the rest of the group. "Alright I think we should be doing the rest of the celebrating at the guild or someplace else far away from here."

Makarov looked at Naruto in confusion. "Why's that, brat?"

"Because that last attack took out the meeting hall and a couple of mountains."

True to Naruto's words there was a giant crater where the building had once stood along with some giant holes through the surrounding mountains. The other masters chose this moment to notice all of the destruction and stood there with slack jaws Before turning to the culprits. "Get them!"

The Fairy Tail members were forced to flee from Clover and several angry guild masters for their destructive actions, but managed to leave in high spirits.

**A/N: Alright chapter finished and it took forever to do, probably because I had other work to do but still it took me hours. I really need to get better at this or not write nearly 10,000 words for one chapter. I, personally, don't like the Lullaby Arc and wanted to get this out of the way though so I decided to cram it all into one chapter. Alright I'm tired so I'm posting this then hitting the sack.**


	3. Chapter 3: Mission Control

**Hidden Guild: Silent Leaf**

**Chapter 3: Mission Control**

**Disclaimer: I own neither Fairy Tail nor Naruto they belong to Mashima Hiro and Kishimoto Masashi respectively**

**A/N: Alright next chapter. To clarify from last time, the Naruto characters will have magic that will closely resemble their main abilities in canon, even if I have to make some of it up. This will mostly be a filler chapter that introduces the other members.**

"Talking"

'Thinking'

**"Demon Talking"**

_'Flashback'_

_Magic/Magic Item_

**Location/Time Change**

**Era Magic Council**

Ten mages are seen sitting around a table discussing the Lullaby incident. "Eisenwald may have been destroyed, but the root of the problem still exists."

An elderly mage spoke up next. "There are still tons of dark guilds out there."

"We should make a plan to wipe them all out at once." Another suggested.

"How?" questioned a different council member.

The first man spoke again. "We cannot allow Zeref's magic to fall into their hands again. We still haven't been able to find the Lullaby flute yet, no matter how many times we search."

The elderly mage spoke up. "How did they obtain that magic in the first place?"

A different elderly man with his hair shaped like cat ears put in his two cents. "That blame goes to the administration level."

"At any rate…" a young blue haired man with a red tattoo over his eye talked for the first time during the meeting. "It seems that the guild that has been giving us such a headache showed up and saved the day."

The young purple haired woman next to him covered her mouth with her sleeve To hid her smile. "They destroyed an entire dark guild with only five people. Quite impressive."

All but two of the other members grumbled and looked disturbed by the news as the blue haired man started talking again. "You may not want to accept it, but that's how it is. If all of those guild masters had been killed we would be having a very different meeting. About who would be replacing most of us."

A loud, boisterous filled the council chamber. A tall man with long, spiky, white hair had his head thrown back as he continues to laugh. "I like you, gaki. You're not as biased as the rest of these fools."

The original speaker was outraged at these words. "Myoboku! What are you implying?"

The white haired man turned towards him. "I'm _stating_ that you all are letting the fact that Fairy Tail causes _you_ a lot of problems cloud your judgment. They destroyed Lullaby and prevented it from killing anyone. They should be rewarded."

"They destroyed two mountains, a meeting hall, and created a giant crater!" The council member pointed out.

Myoboku gave the man a deadpan expression as he started talking, his words dripping with sarcasm. "Yes, because I'm sure that it took sooooo long to find a mage that could fill up a hole in the ground. And I'm _sure_ that Lullaby, a demon from _The Book of Zeref_ would have caused _far_ less damage than two mountains, a building, and a crater. I mean it's not like it is a giant creature of destruction and death, right?"

The other members who had grumbled at Fairy Tail's success were wearing livid expressions, but were unable to deny Myoboku's logic. The blue haired member chuckled at their expressions. "Yes, we should repay them for their kindness."

**Outside Lucy's House**

Naruto stood in front of Lucy's door, looking at a scrap of paper, "Well, this is the place boss wrote down might as well let myself in." with that the newly identified Naruto clone opened the door and walked into Lucy's apartment. He saw that Lucy was busy writing a letter so he decided to let her finish and sat down on her large chair to wait.

Lucy finished her letter and started to stretch unaware that she had company. "Maybe I'll go shopping today. Adventures are great and all, but nothing beats relaxing in your own home."

"I agree, especially if you got this place for 70,000. That's quite a steal." At the clones words Lucy turned around to see him lounging on her chair. "You found a nice place, Lucy." The clone gave her a smile and a wave.

Lucy's eyes bugged out of her head at the sight and she screams, "Intruder!" before she attempted to kick the clone, but the clone flipped behind the chair.

"Whoa, wait a minute. Don't hit me I'm a clone." The clone waved his hands in front of him to try and keep Lucy from dispelling him. "Boss sent me because he thought that you had probably forgotten about _that_."

Lucy stopped trying to kick the clone and gained a look of confusion. "What?"

The clone pumped a fist, "Yup, you forgot and I just made 2,000 jewel. Don't you remember what Natsu said before the mission?" As Lucy continues to look at the clone in confusion he shakes his head, "Come on I'll tell you on the way to the guild." the clone grabs Lucy's hand and pulls her out the door and towards the guild.

**Outside Fairy Tail**

The clone drags Lucy towards a large crowd that was forming a circle around two people, Natsu and Erza. "See Natsu and Erza are fighting. Now I have money to collect." With that the clone left Lucy to her own devices and headed towards where Cana was sitting on a barrel next to a sign that said odds, a bucket of money, and several empty bottles of booze. He joined two other clones who groaned and handed him their money, which he promptly used to bet on Erza.

Lucy shoved her way between Wakaba and Naruto, who went up in smoke when he hit the ground, taking a spot next to Gray, Mira, a tall man with white hair sticking straight up in spikes and a scar under his right eye, and Macao and stared at the pair in shock. "Wait, they were serious?"

Elfman, the white haired man, answered her question. "As serious as they can be. If they weren't, they couldn't call themselves men!"

Mira looked up at her younger brother. "But Erza's a woman."

"More like a monster." Macao commented under his breathe.

Lucy looked on in fear. "But if two of the members of the strongest team fight…"

"Strongest team?" Gray was confused by what Lucy said. "What are you talking about?"

"You, Naruto, Natsu, and Erza. Aren't you the top four in Fairy Tail?" Lucy asked Gray.

Naruto was quick to correct Lucy's misunderstanding. "Lucy, we aren't the strongest mages. We are the strongest _team_, there are still stronger mages, but none of them are part of a stronger team."

"Erza is the strongest woman, though." Levy, a petite young woman with blue hair held off of her face with a bandana wearing a blue tank top, chimed in. Next to her stood her teammates: Droy, a young man with black hair sticking up in a curl wearing a white shirt and a pair of bandoleers strapped over his chest, and Jet, a young man with orange hair jutting back from his head who was wearing a tall, brown, large brimmed, furred hat and an open brown coat with white fur over a purple collared shirt.

"If you're talking about the strongest man, it's probably Mystogan or Laxus." Jet informed Lucy who had heard of both mage. Suddenly a clone appeared at Jet shoulder, having overheard his comment.

"Nah, neither of them would have a chance against 'The Geezer'." It said before dispelling itself in a cloud of smoke.

"I hate it when they do that." Jet gripped as he tried to blow away the smoke with his hands in between coughs. "You'd think he was the smoke mage instead of Wakaba."

Elfman crossed his arms as the fight was about to start. "Either way, this will be a good fight."

"Really, I think that Erza will win easily." Gray confidently remarked.

"How many years has it been since we've had an actual match?" Erza calmly addressed Natsu.

"I was just a kid back then. I've changed and this time I will win." Natsu stated excitedly as he enters his fighting stance.

"I don't plan on holding back. I want to truly test my limits!" With that Erza activates her magic and is engulfed in a bright light as she requips her armor. Her new set of armor is mainly dark red and black with decorative orange pieces shaped like flames. The breast plate covers her from the breasts down to the groin like a one piece swimsuit leaving her shoulders bare, an orange piece covers her breasts and another acts like a belt. There is a set of dragon-like wings on the back. The greaves are shaped like dragon claws, with orange knee guards and black parts that extend to her upper thighs. The gauntlets have small claw-like protrusions on the back of the hands and are mainly covered in orange pieces. An orange collar goes around her neck and Erza's hair is held up in a pair of long pigtails by clips that resemble dragon horns.

A crowd of Naruto clones are behind Erza holding the letters of her name up on signs as they all start to talk amongst themselves, "Amazing, she's using her Flame Emperor Armor. That'll cut Natsu's fire damage in half. She really is taking this seriously. Go Neechan!" with that all of the clones begin to wave their signs around and pick up the chant.

Happy looks at the mages in a serious manner before turning to Cana, "Yep, I'm going to be betting on Erza after all." Happy hands over his money to Cana who adds it into the bucket.

She turns to a nearby Naruto clone, "Alright, that's all the bets. You can start the match now." with that Cana then smacks him over the head with an empty bottle, dispelling him.

Lucy looks at both of them in shock. "You people are so heartless. I could never bet on either of them or hit Naruto like that, even if he is a clone."

Gray looks at Lucy with a raised eyebrow. "You're surprisingly innocent."

"Alright time to start!" and with that 'Naruto' went up in a puff of smoke, surprising Lucy.

"Does he do that a lot? She asks Mira.

"Yes, but you'll get used to it. It does make it hard to keep track of him though."

Naruto appears in the middle of the makeshift ring. "Alright, everyone back up." With a gesture to Ezra he begins the introductions, "On this side we have the scarlet haired beauty, the current strongest woman in Fairy Tail, the S-class mage 'The Titania' Erza Scarlet! And on the other side, the pink haired hothead, the man considered to be one of the most destructive mage to ever use magic, the fire dragon slayer Natsu "The Salamander" Dragoneel!" with that Naruto dispelled with a pop and a cloud of smoke.

"Flame Empress Armor huh?" Natsu's fists are covered in flames as he grins at Erza, "That means I can go all out." the pair stare at each other in intense concentration, waiting for the signal to start.

Master Makarov stood between the pair with a raised arm before dropping it in a swift motion and backing away. "Begin!"

Natsu takes the initiative and rushes Erza, fists ablaze, to launch a downward punch. Erza jumped back and swinsg her sword in an arc, sending a trail of flames with the slash. Natsu ducked down into a crouch before sending a flaming foot up in a straight kick at her chin. Erza moves her head to the side and blocks with her sword, narrowing her eyes in concentration. She then retaliates with a rising diagonal slash forcing Natsu to flip back into a handstand, she then rushes him hoping to catch him off guard. Natsu completes his flip and launches a wave of fire from his mouth. As Erza dodges it Natsu follows her with his flames. When Erza dashes past the crowd the Naruto clones stop chanting and use their _Wind Magic_ to send the flames chasing her into the air and away from the spectators.

Lucy watched in amazement, "Wow."

"See, I told you it would be a good fight." Elfman says proudly.

"Are we watching the same fight?" Gray skeptically asked.

The two fighters prepared to rush each other with Natsu igniting his fists and Erza raising her sword for a downwards strike. As the pair charged each other with their respective attacks a loud clap was heard and they stopped centimeters away from each other, before turning to the source of the sound.

A short creature with a frog-like appearance walked through the gathered crowd, he wore a wide-collared, blue jacket with red trim over a white robe and blue t-shirt, a brown bag, and a small, tall hat with a small, metal circle on it. He arrogantly walked through the crowd to the middle of the makeshift ring, stopping before Erza and Natsu. "Nobody move. I'm a messenger from the council."

This revelation surprised Team Shadow Gear, "The council?!" "A messenger!" "Why would they send one here?!" Levy, Jet, and Droy said respectively.

Lucy looks at them with a stunned expression. "You're ignoring his appearance!"

The frog messenger continued speaking. "With charges of property damage and eleven other crimes from the Eisenwald incident, Erza Scarlet, you are under arrest."

Naruto's clones dispel in shock as the real one stood next to Natsu. The pair had matching slack jawed expressions at the messenger's words. "WHAAAAT?!"

**Later Inside Fairy Tail**

The various guild members despondently moped around the guild as the previous excited mood had withered and died at Erza's arrest. There was a gloom in the air that even affected the normally cheerful Mirajane. The only ones not affected by the mood were: Naruto, who was arguing loudly and vehemently with someone over a _Communication Lacrima_ while seemingly using the words: pervert, council, idiots, and a long list of profanities in excess down in the basement, and Natsu who had been turned into a gecko and trapped under a glass on the bar.

"Let me out! Let me out!" gecko-Natsu pounded his transformed fists against his 'jail'.

"Natsu, be quiet." Mira said, exasperated by his constant demands for freedom since he had been imprisoned.

"Let me out of here!"

"If we do that you'll just go on a rampage."

"I won't. Now turn me back to normal." Natsu unconvincingly argued.

Mira crouched down so that she could look Natsu in the eyes with pursed lips. "If we do that, you'll just go and try to rescue Erza."

"No I won't. Who cares about Erza anyways?"

"It's the council we're dealing with. There's nothing we can do now." Gray spoke up from his spot moping at the table.

Natsu continued to yell from under the glass, "Let me out. I have something to say. I don't care if they are council members, they're wrong. Those guys were bad guys."

Gray shook his head, "Doesn't matter. If you're innocent and the council says that you're guilty, then you're guilty. You think that they would actually listen to us?"

Elfman sat next to Gray and Loke with his chin in his hand. "But we've done all of that stuff before… Why act now?"

Loke grunted in agreement. "You're right. I don't get it."

Lucy sat with her head on the table, "I'm sure of it. Something is going on behind the scenes." before she could elaborate on her idea a shout was heard from the basement.

"WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU JUST SAY?!" Everyone was then reminded that Naruto was still in the basement talking with someone.

"Who's he talking to?" Lucy asked no one in particular.

"I don't know. He just went straight to the basement saying he had to make an important call. I thought he was calling to say that he wouldn't make the meeting, but it doesn't seem like it." Mira explained.

"Meeting?"

"Every couple of months Naruto meets up with the members of his old guild as a sort of reunion. When their guild was destroyed apparently they wanted to move on and split up. However they hold the meetings to stay in touch so to speak, a part of them just can't let it go. Naruto doesn't like to talk about it and that's all he's ever told us. His past is still a touchy subject." After Mira finished her elaboration another shout was heard.

"KAMI DAMMIT!" Naruto could then be heard stomping up the steps as he muttered under his breath, "Of all the bullshit moves to make. Political jackasses trying to save face." he stopped when he noticed the guild staring at him. "What?" Naruto looked around and noticed a distinct lack of a certain pink haired hothead. "Hey where's Natsu?"

Gray pointed to the bar. "He's the gecko under the glass."

Naruto looked over and noticed something else, "If he's over there then where is Happy?"

The other guild member's eyes widened in shock. Naruto was right, Happy always followed Natsu everywhere. If he wasn't here then neither was Natsu. 'Natsu' started to sweat as the guild realized that he was a fake. Naruto swiped the glass of the counter with his magic revealing dispelling the transformation to reveal Macao. The entire guild was surprised, "Macao! Why?"

Macao picked himself off of the floor while rubbing the back of his head. "Sorry. I owed Natsu one. I transformed myself into a gecko and let him get away."

"Then where is Natsu now?" Lucy asked.

Mira turned to Naruto, "He had Happy fly after Erza didn't he?"

Naruto started to sweat and averted his eyes, "Mira-chan, why would you think that I would know."

"Because I know you. You sent a clone after Erza and he saw Happy and Natsu which is how you knew he wasn't here in the first place."

Naruto crouched down in a corner and drew circles with his finger while a dark cloud hovered over him. "So mean Mira-chan. Why can't you let me keep my tricks of the trade and seem smart for once?"

"Are you crazy? Natsu might try and punch a council member." Elfman remarked.

Master Makarov spoke up from his seat on the table, "All of you shut up." a dark look came over his face, "We will patiently for the results."

Naruto got up and headed to the door, "No need, Gramps. The trial's a fake. The council wants to look like they're doing something useful by using Neechan as a scapegoat. Unless Natsu does something stupid they'll be back tonight. If you need me I'll be _there_." with that Naruto left to pack for his trip.

The guild stared at the doors he just left, stunned. "Oi, Gramps. How did he know that?" Gray chose to ask the question on everyone's mind.

Makarov gave a heavy sigh, "Either his clone found out and dispelled itself or, more than likely, it has to do with whomever he was talking to earlier."

"But the only people who could know that are the council members." Levy pointed out. "Who was he talking to?"

**Cells under the Council Chambers**

Erza and Natsu were facing each other behind the cell bars. Erza was white-eyed with rage at what Natsu had done as she explained what was really happening. "I don't even know what to say to you. This was just a formality."

Natsu looked at Erza slack-jawed, "F-formality?"

"Yes, it was a symbolic arrest. The council wanted to throw its weight around and show that they're still in control." The jailed pair were surprised when Naruto came walking up to their cell. "To simplify it, Neechan was supposed to be found guilty with a fake trial, but wouldn't have been punished."

Erza turned back to Natsu with a tic mark added to her forehead to go with her eyes, "Which means I would have gone back to Fairy Tail tonight if you hadn't gone on a rampage."

"EEEHH." Natsu stared at the pair with his mouth opened in horror at what he had just inadvertently done. He slouched down with his back on the bars. "Ugh… Sorry." Natsu apologized.

"Still, it does make me happy." Natsu looks away at Erza's words, embarrassed, until she grabs him and pulls him into a hug. Naruto laughed as Natsu's head was once again clanged off of Erza's breastplate. "By the way Naruto why are you here?"

Natsu perked up at Erza's question, "Are you going to bust us out?" he asked hopefully.

Naruto immediately shot him down, "No way. One, I would only bust Neechan out because you got her into this mess and deserve it. Two, you're only in here for a day. You'll be back at the guild tomorrow, raising hell as usual." Naruto held up two fingers to emphasize his reasons. "And to answer your question, Neechan, I'm a clone Naruto sent after you were arrested. I hung around to make sure that you were okay while boss left for his meeting."

"Okay. It was unnecessary, but thank you for the gesture." Erza acknowledged with a nod of gratitude.

"You'd do the same for me." The clone turned and began to walk away. "See you guys in a couple of days." With that he turned the corner and disappeared.

From out of the shadows stepped a familiar tattooed face in a long white tunic. "Natsu Dragoneel and Naruto Uzumaki. So you were at Fairy Tail all along." With those ominous words Siegrain's image flickered out.

From the shadows around the corner the Naruto clone walked out followed by another familiar face. The white haired council member stood a head taller than the clone as his features were revealed. He was wearing a horned forehead protector with the kanji for toad on it to keep his long, spiky hair out of his face while leaving room for two shoulder-length bangs to frame his face. Red lines ran down his face from his eyes and he had a wart on the left side of his nose. He was wearing a short green kimono with matching pants under a red haori tied with a black belt and geta sandals. "Oi gaki, that the one?"

The Naruto clone nodded, "Yeah. There's something suspicious about him and that comment confirms it. What have you found out?"

The larger man sighed, "There isn't much to find. He was made a Wizard Saint and given a seat on the council. Other than that his past is a blank."

"That's it?!" The clone looked at the man in shock, "That can't be it. What about his past? Previous work? Affiliations? There has to be something." the Naruto clone asked then narrowed his eyes into slits. "I thought that the great "Jiraiya-sama" could find out anything. You must be losing your touch ero-sennin." He said in a teasing tone.

The newly named Jiraiya scowled at the clone, "You weren't listening, gaki. I said that his past is a blank, as in it doesn't exist at all. Anything on his past is fake. It's a really good fake, but not good enough. And I thought that I had told you not to call me that."

The clone gave him his signature fox-like grin, "You did." His teasing expression then dropped. "But what are we going to do about him then?"

Jiraiya's eyes darted around the hallway, "Not here. We'll discuss it at the meeting with everyone else." With that he drove his fist into the top of the clone's head to dispel it. "That's for the crack at my skills." Jiraiya turned around and was gone before the smoke finished dispersing.

**The Next Day in Clover**

Naruto stood in front of a nondescript house as he rubbed the back of his head. 'Why did we have to use this place? I was just here, stupid ero-sennin.' With those thoughts running through his head Naruto raised his hand and rapped on the door in the predetermined code. A small piece of wood was removed to reveal an eye level opening that a familiar lazy expression looked through. "What's the code?"

Naruto rolled his eyes at the procedure. No one else knew that the building was occupied and even if they did they wouldn't know the knock. "The fox basks in the sun." Naruto dutifully gives his code phrase.

The wood was replace and the sound of multiple locks were heard being unlocked along with a muttered troublesome. The door swings inwards letting Naruto in. As he walked in Shikamaru's foot slammed onto his toes making him yell as he hopped on one foot. "What the fuck, Shika?! The hell did I do to deserve that?" Naruto yells as he hopped around the room.

Shikamaru calmly walked past the hopping mage as he cussed him out. "It was for the last troublesome mission and because you kept sending clones. Now it's protocol to make sure that you are the real you." Was his lazy response, "Now stop being a baby, the others are waiting."

"Dammit. Did you have to step on my toes so hard? That shit hurts, dattebayo." Naruto followed Shikamaru into the lounge where ten other people and a dog sat around a large table with four empty seats.

"Then don't wear sandals." Shikamaru said as he dropped into his seat between a robust young man with a red jacket covered in plate armor and black pants with swirls on his cheeks and long, spiky, brown hair eating a bag of chips and a slim blond girl with blue eyes and her hair in a high ponytail and a large bang covering the right side of her face who was wearing a short, sleeveless, purple blouse, a short, open-front, purple apron-skirt over a short black skirt, with white elbow and knee guards and a pair of stud earrings.

"Naruto! You're late again!" A young, pink haired woman with green eyes wearing a sleeveless red top, a pair of black shorts under a short, pink apron skirt, black calf-high boots, black gloves, and a red headband to hold back her long hair shouted at him.

He sheepishly rubbed the back of his head, "Sorry, Sakura-chan buy I got lost on the road of life." Naruto then had to duck as Sakura threw a coaster at him.

Before she could say anything a young, man with his hair in a black bowl-cut, round eyes, and really thick eyebrows who was wearing a horrifying green jumpsuit, orange legwarmers, and bandages wrapped around his hands and forearms leapt to his feet. "Yosh! Naruto-kun it is wonderful that you have decided to join us and share your youthful adventures since we have last met." Before he could continue his rant he was pulled back to his seat by a young women with her brown hair in buns on either side of the top of her head and a reproachful look in her brown eyes. She was wearing a white, long-sleeved, high-collared blouse with red edges and puffy, red pants that stop mid-calf, brown gloves, and brown, low-heeled sandals.

"Knock it off, Lee. He just got here let him sit down." She reprimanded her friend.

"Thanks Tenten." Naruto sat down next to Sakura and one of the empty seats.

"Alright, everyone's here more or less so let's get started." Jiraiya stood up at the head of the table. He turned to his left where Shikamaru and his companions sat. "Shikamaru, you give your report first."

"Troublesome." Shikamaru leans forward and picks up an old newspaper, "As you know I was given the job to infiltrate the minor dark guilds around Fiore to bring them down from the inside. Eight months ago I joined Eisenwald to investigate rumors that they were searching for Lullaby, which turned out to be true. I reported this to Jiraiya who decided that we should let them gain Lullaby and then use it to have them arrested, disbanded, and to destroy Lullaby which was achieved thanks to Naruto and Sai." At this he nodded his head to Naruto and a pale, black haired man sitting on the other side of the empty chair who was wearing a short black jacket over a high-collared, gray shirt that leaves his stomach exposed, black pants, black boots, black gloves, and had a brush stored on his white belt. Sai reached behind his back and brought out the two broken pieces of the Lullaby flute. "Due to complications I was seen by multiple guild masters and forced to slip away during the fighting but any further work I could do was compromised."

Jiraiya then added his own news, "Because of that, Shikamaru is now going to take my place so I can focus on the council while Sai stays on as advisor and messenger." this was news to the assembled mages including Shikamaru.

'Troublesome, I was hoping to head back to the guild and get some time off.' While he knew that he could talk his way out of the job, he also knew that no one else could take the job.

"Next, Choji and Hinata." Jiraiya motioned for the man next to Shikamaru and another young woman with long, dark blue hair, fair skin, white eyes, and a shy expression who was wearing a long-sleeved, lavender and cream, loose fitting zip-up jacket, blue pants, and low-heeled sandals with straps above her ankles to begin their reports.

Choji started, "We were assigned to Lamia Scale to observe and gain experience while looking for any signs of the three main dark guilds. We haven't heard a word about any of the three but have gotten some info on the smaller dark guilds. Other than that we can't do much until we become S-class." Choji turned the rest of the report over to Hinata.

She timidly poked the tips of her pointer fingers together as she finished the report, "In Lamia Scale there hasn't been much activity since Jura-san became a Wizard Saint. We've only been able to take jobs and train so that we can get the harder jobs. We haven't had a request to deal with a dark guild in weeks. There hasn't been any progress with finding the mages that left either, but since we haven't heard anything it is probably safe to take them off of the watch list."

Jiraiya nodded at the pair before gesturing to the blond next to Shikamaru, "Ino your turn."

Ino tossed her head as she started, "Mermaid Heel has been a bust too. None of the mages have found anything new with the dark guilds and most of the jobs avoid fighting because it's just girls. I'm a support mage so I won't get to S-class anytime soon. I would suggest striking the guild from our list and pulling me out. Even if it is one of the top eight guilds, you can't do much fighting outside of sparring and the basic monster control, escort, and bandit hunting missions if you aren't S-class. Although the other girls are strong I'm not gonna find anything else or get much more experience."

"Disappointing, but we'll look into it." Jiraiya made a mark in his notebook. He then gestured to Lee and a young man sitting next to the empty chair between himself and Hinata and the dog. The man sat up from his slouch showing that he had messy, brown hair, black eyes with slit-like vertical pupils, pronounced canines, and a pair of large, red, fang-like tattoos on his cheeks. He was wearing a black, leather jacket and matching black pants with black combat boots, and had a black eye and his arm in a cast and sling. "Lee. Kiba. What happened?"

Kiba groaned as he moved forward. "Quatro Cerberus hasn't gotten any better. The only S-class mages are me, Lee, and the ace Bacchus. We get a lot of the combat jobs and have taken out a couple of guilds, but that's it. Most of the mages are a bunch of brawlers and tanks, no one really looks for any information. Also the only one that does is hammered more than he's sober. Tsunade's got nothing on Bacchus, he uses his magic and drinking to make a _Palm Magic _style on par with the Hyugas."

Jiraiya made an impatient noise, "We already know that. What's your point?"

"My point is that the 'Drunken Duck' gave Lee some sake last week. Turns out Lee's got a killer magic that only works when he's drunk. It's called the _Berserker Blitz_ or something and gives him a huge boost to his damn _Strength _and _Speed Magic, _but makes him a drunk brawler that attacks everyone he sees. He managed to put most of the guild in the hospital and broke my arm along with Bacchus's ribs before we got him to stop. And I mean that my arm is shattered in like five places." Kiba paused his report and turned to Sakura, "Hey, Sakura could you come to the guild to try and put us back together? Goldmine said he'd even pay you."

"Sure thing, Kiba. I'll check on your arm later." Sakura offered.

"Thanks. You're gonna want to bring the kid with you." Kiba resumed his report, "Right so DON'T give Lee any alcohol and we've just taken out some minor dark guilds. Lee, your turn." Kiba regained his slouch as he stroked his large, white dog Akamaru.

"Yosh! Like Kiba-kun said we haven't gained any more information and probably won't, but we will take out more dark guilds and if we can't I'll do six thousands push-ups with my thumbs, if I can't do that then I will run twenty laps around Clover, if I can't do that then I'll do five thousand squats with a boulder, if I can't do that—"

"Alright, we get it. Lee we'll have to look into that magic of yours, until then don't drink anything alcoholic and be on standby in case we find anything." Jiraiya turned to Tenten and the young man sitting next to her with white eyes, dark brown hair that reaches his waist, fair skin, and his guild mark on his forehead, he was wearing a white shirt with loose sleeves closed on the right shoulder with matching pants, a dark gray apron around his waist, and black shoes. "Next is Tenten and Neji."

Neji started, "Blue Pegasus has kept good track of several dark guilds and seems to be the closest to finding the guild we're looking for. I made S-class so Tenten and I have been able to take a more active approach and have taken down several dark guilds which has allowed us to get some significant data. That is summarized in this folder and the original reports are in this one." Neji produces two folders from his bag and slides them towards Jiraiya.

Tenten takes over from there. "We will be able to get more once we can get a few more jobs done. We'll have more to add next time, since we get a decent amount of requests asking for help with dark guilds. Not much can be done from this point until we can get more information."

"Good job. Next, Sakura."

"Like I've said before there is still something off about Cait Shelter, but I can't figure it out. We don't get many dangerous jobs so I've been training the youngest recruit, Wendy. She's an orphan and we might be able to get her to join. She is both a dragon slayer and can use _Healing Magic_ like myself and would be a great member for both support and offense. She's also a sweet and loyal girl that would fit perfectly with the others. I know it is early to be recruiting and that I'm supposed to be investigating _Nirvana_, but I can't find anything until I get more of the members to trust me more." Sakura explained

Jiraiya closed his eyes and hmmed in concentration. "She's older than most, but I'll tell Sensei and see what he thinks. Last Naruto."

"I don't have much either. All I've got is the suspicions about Siegrain that I told you earlier and that I can't do anything more about the dark guilds until I make S-class. Fairy Tail isn't one of the strongest guilds for nothing, so that will take a while. I haven't even heard a whisper of what you wanted me to check on so that's a bust. Most of the info I have is common knowledge or rumors. Other than a couple more guilds being defeated by my clones nothing's changed other." Naruto shrugged his shoulders then turns serious. "The main point of moving the meeting time up wasn't just about the Lullaby incident and Shikamaru being put in charge was it? Why couldn't you wait another couple of days when everyone could have made it?"

All eyes around the table turned to Jiraiya as they saw the truth in Naruto's words. Jiraiya sighed and closed his notebook before pushing it towards Shikamaru, "I just got word, the guild is calling back all independent mages from across the continent and wants all the infiltrations ended by the end of the year." Jiraiya turned back around to stare at the gathered mages individually, all of which met his steely gaze. "The guild is planning to reveal itself. It won't be like before, we'll be an independent guild still, but the king won't back us up. We'll have to fight the Rune Knights, legal guilds, and dark guilds. The age of the hidden guilds are over and we'll probably be labeled as a dark guild for our methods. However, we will still fight to keep Fiore safe like we had before and as we will continue to do in the years to come. Fiore may not want us or think that they need us anymore. They turned their backs on us before and will do it again. But they do. They don't know it or don't want to admit it, but the hidden guilds kept this country neutral. We kept the armies out, the borders secure, and the trade safe. We may not be as strong as we once were, but we can still keep our country and home safe. There is just one question that was in the orders. Are you going to fight with us?"

During Jiraiya's speech not a single gaze had wavered, not a doubt crossed their minds and together the eleven mages reached into their things and brought out the one thing that they valued above all. In each of their hands sat an intricate metal pendant in the shape of a spiral with a small triangle on the bottom right and small line on an angle to the upper right at the beginning of the spiral. The symbol of the strongest hidden guild, Silent Leaf. The mages spoke in one voice that sounded like a combination of thirteen instead of eleven. "Of course!"

**A/N:** **Okay a day off from school is all the motivation I need to pump out another chapter. And by motivation I mean that I literally did nothing all day. So this chapter was going to be longer, but the last part just came to me and it felt too good to not end on. I'll be gone for the weekend and probably won't post another chapter until next week.**


	4. Chapter 4: Dancing with Demons

**Hidden Guild: Silent Leaf**

**Chapter 4: Dancing with Demons**

**Disclaimer: I own neither Fairy Tail nor Naruto they belong to Mashima Hiro and Kishimoto Masashi respectively**

**A/N: One of the reviews informed me that I had forgotten the ages, sorry. So the Rookie 9 and Sai are 17 and Team 9 are all 18. I went through and reread my earlier chapters this weekend, not fun. Turns out when you copy and paste stuff gets changed. So I went and edited the earlier chapters to fix them. Man I need a beta.**

"Talking"

'Thinking'

**"Demon Talking"**

_'Flashback'_

_Magic/Magic Item_

**Location/Time Change**

**Clover Safe House**

Jiraiya had left after hearing their agreement to let Shikamaru assume his new position. Said lazy mage had taken the seat at the head of the table. He started to read the details from the notebooks left by Jiraiya. "Troublesome. Okay you heard Jiraiya, we have until the end of the year to clear out. Plan accordingly and when we leave we are doing it together. As per instructions: On December 31, X784 the surviving members of the fake, disbanded guild White Fang will disappear taking any information their guild has on them, at the same time the council member Myoboku will destroy all the false data that says that White Fang ever existed including all information about the surviving mages, simultaneously the five safe houses that we have used will catch fire and burn to the ground, lastly the mages will assemble at Era where we will be escorted back to the guild by a four-man team." Shikamaru put the nltebook down with a sigh. "Any questions?"

"Yeah, what are we going to do about Sasuke and Shino?" Naruto questioned the newly appointed leader. "They aren't here to get the memo."

Shikamaru folded his hands and closed his eyes, "One's on a deep cover mission, so we still can't reach him without causing an incident like last time. The other we will have to try and make contact with individually or wait until the next scheduled meeting."

The mages didn't like it, but their options were limited. No one wanted to expose themselves now that they had a definite return date. Shikamaru's eyes lazily scanned the disgruntled mages, "Anyone else?" when he didn't get a reply he leaned back onto the back legs of his chair. "Then the meeting's over. Food's in the kitchen, _Video Lacrima_ works now, and I'm taking a nap. Wake me up and I'll sink you up to your neck in my shadows. Dismissed" With his piece said the lazy shadow mage put his boots on the table, leaned his chair far enough back so that it would touch the wall, and promptly fell asleep.

The remaining mages deadpanned at their new 'leader' and the way he casually dismissed them. Naruto was the first to move, "Well, if the meeting's over I'm going to have some ramen." the blond stood up and made his way over to the kitchen calling over his shoulder, "Oi, Sai. You live in these houses don't you? Show me where you keep the ramen."

The other mages started to relax now that the meeting was over and catch up with each other in the living room. Kiba had his arm and eye healed by Sakura, Choji joined Naruto in the kitchen where they proceed to grab all of the food and bring to their friends. Together the mages told stories of what they had done since the last meeting, embellishing their successes and glossing over their failures. Later when Shikamaru woke from his nap Tenten broke out the sake (which was kept far away from Lee) and the group drank, reminisced and celebrated for days until they had to leave.

**Days Later on the way to Fairy Tail**

"Ugh. My head. I don't understand how Baa-chan can drink so much. Her hangovers have got to be worse than mine." A hung-over blond slowly walks to the guild hall, bemoaning his current condition. "Man, those meetings suck, but the reunion and parties afterwards are awesome." Before he could walk through the doors, an irate scarlet haired mage storms out of the guild and crashes into him. The blond was knocked off balance and reflexively grabbed onto her armor, which brought Erza down on top of him unfortunately. "Ugh, and this day keeps getting better." Naruto opens his eyes and recognizes the person who crashed into him. "Neechan? Why are you in such a hurry?"

Erza stands up while rubbing her head before answering his question with her own. "Naruto, you're back already? Doesn't matter, are you busy?" She hauls him to his feet after she asks.

"Well I just got back, so I don't have any plans except for telling Gramps that I'm ba-" Naruto's reply is cut off as Erza grabs him by the back of his bandanna and starts to drag him behind her down the street.

"Perfect. I want you to help me retrieve some rule-breakers." Erza ignores Naruto's plight as she determinately strides towards the train station. "I'll explain on the train."

"Ack. Wait, Neechan. I don't know what you're talking about. I need to pack. Let go of my bandanna. Slow down. Stop dragging me, dattebayo. I can walk." Naruto awkwardly stumbles backwards as he tries to keep up with Erza, pleading with her to release him the entire way.

**Hargeon Town**

"I don't know what to do now, Neechan. No one was willing to go to Galuna Island for money, threats, or money and threats. How did those idiots even get there in the first place?" Naruto thought aloud as he sat perched on a barrel by the docks. Erza stood looking out over the sea, thinking about how to get to Galuna Island. Suddenly she has an idea.

She turns to look at Naruto, who is frightened by the dangerous gleam in her eyes. "How good of a sailor are you and how long can your clones last?" Erza asks the blond.

"Well I know enough to keep the ship afloat, but that's about it. As for my clones, they last until they take a solid hit. Why do you ask?" Naruto hesitantly replies.

"Because I have an idea on how to get to the island." Was Erza's confident reply. She turns and starts to walk down the dock. "First we need to find a boat."

Naruto warily follows Erza, already dreading her unknown plan.

**Pirate Ship on the way to Galuna Island**

"Neechan, your plan sucks." Naruto complained from his place next to Erza at the front of the ship. "I don't care if it did work."

"It worked so it was a good plan." Was Erza's reasonable response to the griping blond.

"Your master plan was to take a boat, get attacked by pirates, take over their ship, and then force them to take us to Galuna Island at sword point!" Naruto screamed at the armored mage. "How is that a good plan?"

"Because it worked." Erza smugly replied.

"Fine. Let's just grab Natsu, Gray, Lucy, and Happy and drag their sorry asses home. I haven't seen my bed in days." The clone and wind mage said as he threw his hands in the air and walked down to the deck. "I'm gonna give us a speed boost." With that declaration Naruto creates four clones to help him pump _Wind Magic_ into the sails, greatly increasing their speed and cutting down their travel time.

**Storage Area Outside of the Village**

Inside a tent Naruto looks down at Gray's bandaged form while he sleeps. Inside his head he is debating over his next move. 'On one hand if I wake him up he could go back and try to fight this Reitei guy and possiy get killed or worse, piss off Neechan. On other hand he made Neechan drag me away from my nice bed and out to this island because he couldn't stop Natsu from getting on a damn form of transportation. Yeah, I'm waking him up.' With his internal debate decided Naruto unceremoniously kicks Gray in the side, making him groan in pain. "Wake up."

Gray slowly regains consciousness and sits up. He looks around and notices the unhappy blond. "Naruto? What are you doing here? And where is here?" The disoriented ice mage asks.

"I'm here because you fucked up your little retrieval mission. As for here, we are in a storage area outside the remains of the village." The cranky blond replies, "Now let's go reunite with the other members of your rule-breaking crew." Naruto hauls Gray to his feet and leads him to the big tent.

Gray looks around the storage area and clenches his fists at what Lyon had done. He then realizes something odd and questions Naruto. "Why did Gramps send you to get us? You're not S-rank."

Naruto stops in front of the tent and pulls back the flap, letting Gray enter first. "He didn't I was brought along-" Gray enters the tent and is shocked by what he sees. Erza is sitting with her legs crossed and a dark look on her face, behind her a crying Happy and Lucy are tied up with rope. "-by Neechan."

"We heard what happened from Lucy." Erza stands up as she talks, "Weren't you supposed to be stopping Natsu? I'm disappointed."

"Where's Natsu?" Gray asks.

"That's what we'd like to know. He was apparently fighting Reitei's minions at the village, but I didn't find anyone there. After that, I met up with Neechan, who had captured Lucy and Happy. Lucy told us that you were with the villagers and my clones found this storage area." Naruto explained from behind Gray. "We're going to look for him now that you're awake."

Erza begins to walk past Gray, "After we find him all of us are returning to the guild."

"Wait Erza, Naruto. If you heard our story then you have to know what is happening here." Gray demanded of the pair.

"What's your point?" Erza asked. "I came here to bring back so rule-breakers. Natsu is the only one left. Other than that nothing else interests me here."

Gray stares at Erza in disbelief before turning to Naruto. "Don't look at me. I came here because Neechan dragged me. Your heart's in the right place, but your methods are wrong." The blond turned to look Gray in the eyes. "What if another guild had taken this job? What if one is on the way? What if the job was more dangerous than it turned out to be? There is a reason we have these regulations and methods, Gray. We can't just do what we want whenever we want." He said with a seriousness he rarely showed under his usual goofy attitude.

Gray still tried to reason with them, "Haven't you seen what these people look like?"

"Yes."

"Are you just going to leave them like that?!" Gray angrily questioned.

Erza still faced away from Gray as she talked. "The request has gone to every guild. Wouldn't it be better to let one of the other mages who officially accepted the request to complete it?"

"I'm disappointed in both of you!" Gray yelled at Naruto and Erza.

"Gray, how dare you say that about Erza-sama and Naruto-sama!" Happy yelled from his tied up position, much to Lucy's disbelief.

Erza turns around and requips a sword to point at Gray, "Do you intend to break the rules as well?" she asks as she holds the sword to his neck. "You won't get away with it."

Gray bows his head so that his hair overshadows his eyes. He reaches up and grabs Erza's sword. He positions it over his guild mark and clutches the sword so hard that it cuts his hand. "Do what you must. This is the path I've chosen. This is something that I have to do." Gray meets Erza's gaze as his blood runs down the sword's blade. Erza rips the blade out of Gray's hand and he walks past her. He stops and looks over his shoulder, "I'm going to finish this. Cut me down if you want." With that he walks out of the tent as Naruto holds the flap open.

Erza turns back to the bound Happy and Lucy with a dark look on her face and her sword still dripping blood. Lucy and Happy start to panic, "Hey Erza, calm down." Lucy nervously stammers.

Happy joins her attempt to stop the angry sword wielding mage. "Yeah, Gray's just angry because he lost to his old friend."

Erza's blade flashes as she spins it in two arcs to free Happy and Lucy as they scream in terror. "This is absurd." Erza makes her sword disappear as she turns to leave. "We will take care of this after the job is done."

Lucy and Happy look at Erza, overjoyed at her sudden kindness. "Erza!" They cry in unison.

Erza gives them a dark look over her shoulder, "Don't misunderstand. You will be punished."

They hang their heads and accept their fate with a crestfallen 'Ayes'. Erza walks past Naruto, who hadn't moved from his spot by the tent flap, when she heard him whisper, "I knew you wouldn't leave these people like this. You're too nice for your own good sometimes." her only response was to smirk at him before exiting the tent.

**Forest between Village and Ruins**

The mages are running through the forest as Gray explains Lyon's plan. "Lyon wants to defeat Deliora. That's his intention?" Lucy asked Gray to confirm what he just said.

The Fairy Tail mages stop running when Gray stops and leans against a tree using his arm to keep himself upright. "Lyon has always wanted to surpass Ur. Now that she is gone, Lyon is trying to defeat Deliora, the one thing that Ur couldn't beat. He believes that if he does this, he will have finally surpassed Ur." Gray explains Lyon's reasoning while he rests.

"I get it that would be the only way to defeat someone who is dead." Lucy voices aloud.

"Aye." Happy murmurs.

"No. Lyon doesn't know the whole story." Gray turns to the mages. "Ur may have disappeared, but she is still alive."

Gray's words stun the other mages. Erza is the first to ask what is on everyone's mind. "What do you mean? What happened?"

Gray began to recount on what had happened. How Ur and Lyon had found him after Deliora had attacked his town, how Ur taught him magic, how she was the cause of his stripping due to her training them half-naked in the mountains, how he had recklessly chased after Deliora when he learned of its whereabouts, and how Ur had chased after him and fought Deliora and defeated it by using _Iced Shell_ to sacrifice herself and seal Deliora forever by turning her body into ice. He even told them that Ur had frozen Lyon to prevent him from using the same spell and had Gray tell him that she had died. During his story they had started to walk again and after he had finished they came in sight of the ruins and noticed something.

"The ruins… are… tilted." Lucy says while tilting her head.

"What's going on?" Happy asks with his head also tilted.

"Well now we know where Natsu went." Naruto says as he stares at the ruins. "He's the only person on the island who'd do something like this, dattebayo. Even if it was an accident. At least now the moonlight can't reach the basement, so I guess it's a good plan." Naruto muses aloud.

"Seems like a stupid plan to me." Gray mutters under his breath.

Naruto still hears him though, "If it's stupid but it works then it's not stupid." he pointed out.

Before they could start to argue about it they are forced to dodge moon-shaped blades. Erza turns to the direction they came from and shouts, "Who's there?"

Out of the forest appear Lyon's followers, wearing their purple robes and gray helmets with a crescent moon on it. "We've found you Fairy Tail! You won't interfere with Reitei-sama's plan." The leader called out as they surrounded the mages.

Erza and Naruto step forward to confront the followers. "Gray, go. Settle things with Lyon." We'll hold them off." Erza states as she requips a sword.

"Don't worry. We're here to." Lucy reassures Gray as she cracks her whip.

"Aye." Happy holds his fish bone as a weapon.

Gray nods his thanks and turns to race towards the ruins.

Naruto smiles and cracks his knuckles as he steps in front of Erza to confront Lyon's followers. "Alright, bastards. I've got some pent up rage that I've been holding back ever since I got dragged on this stupid job and you're the perfect targets for some misplaced aggression, dattebayo!" He shouts at them before forming over fifty clones, "Isn't that right boys?"

The clones give a positive cry before they follow Naruto into the fray and start beating the followers with their fists and kicks without using _Wind Magic_ and making new clones as they are dispelled. The acts of unrestrained violence unnerve Lucy, who is used to Naruto being more carefree. She hides behind Erza and voices her thoughts. "Isn't that a little extreme?" An unconscious mage is thrown in front of them with a fist-shaped dent in their helmet. "And why isn't he using magic?"

Erza calmly watches as Naruto decimates Lyon's followers, "Naruto wasn't assigned to this mission, I dragged him along to help bring you all back. He wasn't happy about it, but did it as a favor to me. Right now he is releasing his stress in his own… unique way." She explains to Lucy.

"If he didn't want to come, why did you bring him?"

"I wouldn't have been able to carry you all at once." was Erza's response.

Lucy deadpanned at the older mage. 'So you essentially brought him along as a pack mule.'

Suddenly a rumbling was felt throughout the entire island. Everyone stopped fighting and turned to the ruins. They all were stunned to see that the ruins were back to normal and the _Moon Drip_ ritual had started. "Lucy, Happy, Neechan, go and stop the ritual. I'll catch up with you after I beat these small fries." Naruto says as he beats down another follower.

"Alright we leave it you." Erza says before she takes off for the ruins followed by Happy and Lucy.

'I need to get to Deliora in case they fail to stop the ritual in time.' Naruto thinks to himself, 'I've got to end this now.' He creates a clone and dispels it immediately to inform the others of his plan. The clones break away from their fights and form a circle with the original Naruto. Together they spread their arms out and start to channel magical power, "I don't have time to mess around anymore. _Crushing Air Pressure!_" they all make a downwards motion with their arms and a massive gust of wind presses straight down onto the followers, knocking them out in an instant.

Naruto dispels the clones and starts to run to the ruins. 'If Deliora wakes up I'll have to use _that_ to beat it. I hope they make it in time.' With these thoughts running through his mind Naruto approaches the ruins.

**Basement below the Ruins**

Naruto makes it to the basement in time to watch Zalty, a short man with long green hair who was wearing a red, horned tribal mask that left his mouth and chin exposed and a green cloak over a red shirt and blue pants, and Natsu's fight. Before he could join Lyon came crashing down from the ceiling. They all looked up and saw Gray standing over the hole, evidently having won his fight. Suddenly a sharp cracking sound was heard and the mages turned and looked on in horror as Deliora frees its torso from the ice and lets out an earsplitting roar. Naruto joined Natsu as they waited for Gray to reach them. "Oi, Natsu we need to beat this guy before Deliora can completely break free from the ice." Says Naruto. "What kind of magic does he use?"

Natsu never takes his eyes off of Zalty as he answers him, "I dunno. He's weird and so is his magic."

Naruto grunted in frustration before assuming his fighting stance. "Fine we don't have time for this. We gotta beat this guy then help the girls and Happy stop the _Moon Drip_."

"Let's g-" Natsu is cut off when he is blindsided by a flying sphere that slams into the side of his head. Before Naruto can react the sphere reverses and slams into his gut. The pair are sent sprawling from the hits as Zalty laughs.

"I can also manipulate this as well Salamander-kun and friend." He says as he guides the sphere with his hand.

"Dammit why does he recognize you and not me?" Naruto grumbles as he picks himself up.

Natsu laughs as he gets to his feet. "Probably because I'm a better mage than you." was his answer.

"I think it's because you destroy so much stuff." Naruto deadpanned.

The dragon slayer gave him an eloquent response. "Shut up."

"Oi, I'm still here you know." Zalty called down to the arguing mages from his rock.

"We know. Bring it on, bastard!" Natsu yells at the masked mage.

Zalty smirks as he sends the sphere at the pair. Natsu charges forward and breaks it into pieces with a flaming punch. Zalty then raises his hand and repairs the sphere before sending it hooking into Natsu's gut. "I can control the time of objects. So I can return the sphere to a time before it was broken." Zalty explains his magic to them.

Natsu jumps back to where Naruto is standing. "Time? I don't believe you." He skeptically tells Zalty.

The sphere returns to Zalty as he continues his explanation, "_Time Arc_ was erased from history due to its power. In other words, it's one of the Lost Magics. Now, why don't I move the sphere's time into the future?" Zalty casts his magic onto the sphere and greatly increases its speed.

Naruto spreads his arms out and does a quick spin to conjure a tornado around himself and Natsu. The sphere is unable to make it through the fast moving winds and just bounces off. "Natsu listen." Naruto begins talk to his fellow mage. "He can repair his sphere anytime we break it, so keep it away from you without breaking it."

"How the hell am I supposed to do that?" Natsu questioned. "I can't send gusts of wind at it like you can."

"Use your fire to push it away. Whenever it's broken he can reform it and attack you from behind. As long as you redirect it with your flames or move out of the way it won't hit you." Naruto explains. The tornado dissipates after a while and leaves the pair exposed to Zalty's attacks once again. He capitalizes on this and starts to send the sphere at Natsu and Naruto once again. Thanks to Naruto's advice Natsu avoids or deflects all of the sphere's attempts to hit him while Naruto uses _Gale Palms_ to deflect the attacks without breaking them with large palm-shaped air blasts. Natsu eventually grows frustrated with dodging and launches a punch at the sphere only for it to freeze just outside his range.

"I can also stop its time." Zalty explains.

"But it looks like it won't work on humans." Natsu notices.

"You've got sharp eyes." Zalty compliments Natsu as he recalls his sphere. "It doesn't work on any living creature. That's why I can't reverse the time of the ice, which is actually Ur."

"Explaining how your magic works and its weaknesses, you are a very arrogant person aren't you?" Naruto comments as he regroups with Natsu.

"I don't get you." Natsu points a finger at Zalty and explains his reasoning, "You want to revive Deliora so that Lyon can defeat it. That will make Lyon happy, but what about his friends?"

"I don't know." Zalty gave a shrug of his shoulders. "I just joined recently."

"So what about you?" Natsu questions as he slips back into his fighting stance. "What's your true objective?"

"Ho ho ho. I can't slip anything by, you can I?" Zalty laughs again. "Reitei-sama… I mean, the brat is no match for Deliora. He can't beat it."

"You never answered the question." Naruto pointed out.

"True. I just want to make it mine." Zalty's answer shocks the mages with his answer. "There are techniques that can be used to control even immortal monsters. Wouldn't it be great to have Deliora under my control?"

"Ridiculous. I wasted my time asking." Natsu huffs at Zalty's goal, confusing Naruto and Zalty. "I was hoping you had a burning passion for something that would get me all fired up. But I guess not." Natsu explains himself. Naruto slaps the back of his head which makes him yelp in pain. "What the hell was that for?"

"There is a guy saying that he wants to control a super powerful demon, that was a match for a mage on the same level of a Wizard Saint, and all you care about is his reasoning. That is one of the stupidest things I've ever heard." Naruto deadpanned at Natsu.

"You still don't understand. There will come a time when you need power." Zalty states.

"When that time comes, I'll believe in my own power, and the power of my friends. The power of Fairy Tail mages." Natsu says while igniting his fist.

"That ego of yours will lead to your destruction." Zalty says as he raises a hand. Before he can do anything though a Naruto clone jumps at him from behind and delivers a spinning kick to his back.

"And your arrogance has led to yours!" The clone shouts as he sends Zalty flying towards Natsu.

"Each and every one of you bastards have been screwing with this island for the stupidest reasons. I've had enough!" Natsu shouts as he uses his flames as thrusters to get close to Zalty. He delivers a vicious uppercut to his chin, sending him into the air and a waiting Naruto while shouting. "Get off this island! _Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!_"

Naruto grabs onto Zalty's shoulder and gives him a predatory grin. "How's this for time manipulation? I'm gonna send you on an express flight out of these ruins in record time!" Naruto smashes a _Spiraling Wind Sphere _into Zalty's stomach, doubling him over, which then launches him through the walls and out of the ruins. At the same time Erza stops the _Moon Drip_ ritual. Unfortunately, she is too late. Deliora breaks out of the remains of the ice and lets out another roar, announcing his freedom to the entire island. At the same time, Gray makes it to the basement and witnesses its revival. He scoops up some of the water before he is noticed by Natsu and Naruto, who make their way over to him.

"Gray. There you are." Naruto says as they approach him.

"Now we have no choice. We have to destroy Deliora." Natsu states as he points to the demon in question. Before Gray could respond a strangled laughing was heard. The mages turn and see that Lyon had regained conscious and was dragging his bloody and bruised body along the ground.

"It's impossible for you. I will… defeat it… In order to surpass Ur, I will be the one to beat Deliora!" Lyon says in weak voice as he drags himself closer. In his eyes a mad fire burned as he was consumed by his desire to prove his strength and to surpass his former teacher. The mages could see it from where they were standing and it made them pity Lyon.

Natsu points a finger at Lyon, "It would be even more impossible for you. Stay back!" he shouts at Lyon. Deliora chooses that moment to let out another roar.

Lyon lifts his head at the sound and starts to address the demon. "Finally, we meet again, Deliora." Lyon begins to slowly stand up. "The one monster that Ur couldn't defeat. I will defeat it… with my own hands now." Lyon stands hunched over as he speaks in a strained voice and slowly straightens, "I… will… surpass… you… now…" Gray walks up behind Lyon and hits him with a chop to the neck, making him fall forward.

"That's enough, Lyon." Gray walks past the form of his fellow apprentice with a serious look on his face. "Leave the rest to me." Gray stands in front of Deliora before crossing his arms while keeping them straight, "I will seal Deliora. _Iced Shell_." Magical power starts to build up around Gray as a blue aura and the water he is standing in surrounds him.

Lyon looks up at Gray in shock and anger and starts to yell at him. "Don't do it Gray! Do you know how long it took me to melt the ice? History will just repeat itself. I will melt the ice again and challenge Deliora then!"

Lyon's frantic shouting is ignored by Gray who is solely focused on his task at hand. "This is the only way. Right now, this is the only thing that can stop Deliora." Gray says as the magical power continues to build. Suddenly Natsu and Naruto step in front of Gray, shocking him and Lyon. "You guys, what are you doing?"

The pair stand with their backs to Gray facing Deliora. Naruto speaks first in a gravelly voice, **"****We'll fight it."**

"Move it, Natsu. Naruto. Don't get in the way." Gray calls out to the pair.

Natsu starts to speak, "I stopped you before because I didn't want you to die. Maybe I didn't get through to you. If you are gonna use that magic, then do it."

**"You're running away, Gray." **Naruto tells him. **"Don't you believe in your friends?"**

Gray is stunned at their words and conviction. Before he can act on it however, Deliora raises his hand to crush them all. "Look out!" Gray yells at them.

Natsu stands with a flame-covered fist reared back as Naruto does the same with a strange red aura that was shaped like a claw around his hand. "I **won't **give **up!"** They cry together as they prepare to fight Deliora. Before they can do anything a loud crack is heard and Deliora starts to crumble. This shocks all the assembled mages, who deactivate their magic and watch the demon fall apart with slack jaws.

Lyon tries to deny what he is seeing. "Impossible. It can't be. Deliora was already dead." He clenches his hands into fists as he holds back tears. "For ten years, Deliora's strength has been worn down by Ur's ice. All that we saw were its final moments." Lyon slams his fist onto the ground in his anger and frustration. "It's no use… I will never be able to surpass Ur."

Natsu turns to look at Gray. "Your teacher is awesome."

Gray bows his head and covers his face with his hand, "Thank you so much… Teacher." he manages to get out through his tears.

Erza, Happy, and Lucy reunite with Naruto, Natsu, and Gray. They all celebrate in happiness at their success over Lyon and Deliora. Gray walks over to Lyon and picks him up before supporting him with his shoulder. Together the mages walk out of the ruins in high spirits.

Natsu and Happy jump into the air cheering, "Yeah! It's done!"

"Aye sir!"

Lucy sighs in relief, "Really, I wasn't sure what was going to happen there for a while. But Ur-san is really amazing."

Natsu continues to jump with joy. "We managed to complete an S-class quest! Yahoo!"

"Do you think we can go up to the Second Floor now?" Lucy excitedly asks as Gray chuckles.

Behind the excited mages four Naruto clones poof into existence and swat them over the heads. They dispel themselves and when they turn to complain to where Naruto and Erza are standing they catch sight of Erza's dark look. They all break out into a cold sweat as they remember something very important about the quest.

Lucy holds her head in her hands, "Oh no. I forgot, we're still gonna get punished!" she says in fear.

Erza crosses her arms as she addresses the mages. "You have something to take care of before that don't you? Wasn't the real point of the quest to save the villagers who had been turned into demons? The S-class mission isn't over yet."

The mages realize that Erza was right. Lucy quickly thinks of a possibility. "But Deliora died, that should stop the curse, right?"

"Nope. Deliora wasn't the source of the curse. The enormous magical power that the moon drip gave off harmed those people. Therefore the situation won't change because Deliora collapsed." Erza explained.

Lucy covers her mouth with her hand, "Oh, no."

Happy and Natsu are unaffected by the news. "Then let's hurry up and heal them." Natsu says as he puts his hand up for a high-five.

Happy gives him one with an "Aye sir!"

Gray interrupts them as he muses aloud, "How should we do that?" he then gets an idea and turns to look at Lyon, who is sitting against a rock behind them, and calls out to him. "Hey, Lyon."

"Let me tell you that I have no idea." Lyon answers the unasked question.

"What?" Happy and Natsu express their disbelief.

Lucy questions Lyon with a desperate tone. "Wait, if you don't know how to dispel it, how are we supposed to-"

Lyon cuts off Lucy as he launches into an explanation. "We've known about the village on the island ever since we came here three years ago. We never interfered with the village and they never came to see us once."

Naruto raises a skeptical eyebrow at Lyon's words. "Wait, you're telling us that you've been on this island for three years, dragged a big-ass demon sealed in a giant ice cube to the basement of the only ruins on the entire island, preformed the _Moon Drip _ritual every night for said three years, which is a giant purple beam in the sky, and the villagers didn't even attempt to contact you, but were willing to send an S-rank mission with a 7,000,000 jewel and a golden celestial key to every, single, fucking guild in Fiore. That leaves two options: either you are lying or the villagers are." Naruto walks over to Lyon and crouches down so that he can look him in the eyes. After several seconds Lyon looks away and Naruto nods to himself. "All right, you're telling the truth. Which means the villagers have some explaining to do."

"You think we can trust him just by looking into his eye?" Lucy questions Naruto. "Why."

"I have serious doubts about _Moon Drip's_ effects on humans." Lyon says without looking at the mages before Naruto can answer, "Because," he turns to look at the Fairy Tail mages. "we've been under the same light for three years."

"That's true." Lucy says, startled. The others look uneasy at what Lyon had brought up.

"Be careful. They are hiding something." Lyon turns his head away from them again. "Well, it's a job for you guild people from here."

"Oh, I don't think so." Natsu angrily says. "You destroyed the village an-" Before he can finish another clone appears and holds its hand over his mouth.

"That's enough." Erza says with a tone of finality. "They had their own sense of justice. There's no use in complaining about the past. Let's go."

With that the clone dispels and Erza leads the way back to the villagers. "Go? But how are we going to break the curse?" Natsu asks as he follows Erza.

"Who knows." Was her only response. The mages start to leave, with Gray lingering behind to give some advice to Lyon before joining them.

**Storage Area Outside of the Village**

The mages enter the storage area only to find it deserted. They look around for the villagers, but they all had vanished. "Everyone's gone." Happy says.

Natsu looks around the storage area since he had never seen it before. "So this is where everyone was."

"Yeah, because the village is gone. But where is everyone?"

A Naruto clone steps out of a tent carrying a medical kit. "Yo, boss." It calls out to Naruto. "We checked everywhere, but no one is here. We did manage to find some bandages though."

Gray takes the bandages with a thanks and the clone dispels itself. A villager, in his demonic form, runs up to the mages, startling Naruto, and waves to get their attention. "Everyone, you're back. There's a problem. Please, hurry to the village."

**Village**

The mages look at the village in shock. All of the damage caused by the acid had vanished and the village was restored to normal. All of the demonic looking villagers were celebrating and examining the village as if they couldn't believe their eyes. Lucy and Happy were the most surprised. "What's this?" Lucy says.

"The village was destroyed yesterday, but now it's back to normal!" Happy says in shock.

Natsu starts to bang his fist on one of the huts, "It's back to the way it was. What the hell? It's like time has been rewound."

Naruto hits him over the head again. "If it's fixed then don't break it again you idiot." He says before adopting a thinking pose. 'But how could this have happened. The village was dissolved to nothing. The only person who could have fixed it that I can think of is Zalty. But if he did why?'

Erza walks over to Naruto and whispers into his ear. After she's done he nods and starts to form clones that walk up to the villagers and start to lead them to the center of the village before they dispel.

Erza overhears the village chief asking Lucy when the moon will be destroyed and approaches him. "Destroying the moon will be easy."

Erza's words surprise everyone. "Did she just say that with a straight face?" Gray questions.

"Aye… But I guess that's Erza for you." Happy uncertainly replies.

"But first, I want to check on something." Erza continues, "Will you follow me?" Erza leads them to the center of the village where all of the villagers had gathered.

Naruto approaches Erza with twitchy air about him. "I gathered them all together like you asked, Neechan." He says in a voice deeper than his normal one.

"Thank you. Is there something wrong? You sound different." Erza asks.

Naruto's eyes, that seem to have a purplish tinge to them, and keep darting back to the villagers as he answers her. "I think I might have caught a virus or something from this island. Can we hurry up and get this over with?" He pleads as he starts to sweat. 'These guys look too much like demons. I need to get out of here before I attack one of them just for trying to get my attention.'

Erza accepts the blonde's answer and turns to address the crowd. "Let me get this straight. You all gained these demonic forms after the moon turns purple. Right?"

"To be exact, we only look like this when the moon comes out." The chief corrects Erza's statement.

Erza starts to pace around the crowd as she talks, "From what we've heard this all started three years ago."

"That sounds right."

"However, the _Moon Drip_ has occurred on this island every night of those three years. You should have been able to see the light falling on the ruins every night then." Erza was walking with her eyes closed and misses the poorly disguised pitfall trap that Lucy had made earlier. "KYAH!" She unknowingly steps on the trap and falls in with a cute, loud, high pitched yell.

The other Fairy Tail mages look on in horror. "Even the pitfall was restored." Happy says in surprise.

"She said 'Kyah'."Natsu struggles to say.

"That was really cute." Gray mutters in disbelief.

Lucy holds her hands on the sides of her head as she shakes it back and forth denying that she had any part in the making of the trap, which cements her status as the culprit. Meanwhile Naruto is on his hands and knees laughing his ass off. "Oh, Kami that is gold, pure gold! I'll be able to hold that over her head for years! I wish I had my camera."

Erza pulls herself out of the hole and continues speaking as if nothing had happened, impressing the villagers with her nerve. "Therefore, that would be the most suspicious place on the island. So why didn't you ever investigate the ruins?"

The villagers start to nervously murmur amongst themselves at Erza's question. They were looking at everything and anything that wasn't a mage. The chief comes up with a weak and obviously false excuse. "It's a village tradition to never go near the ruins."

"But the situation was serious, wasn't it?" Lucy questions. "You said you had some casualties and the reward was really high."

The chief tries to come up with an excuse, but realizes the futility of it and trails off before he can begin. "Will you please tell us the truth?" Erza softly asks.

The mayor gives in and starts to explain, "We don't understand it ourselves. Honestly, we've tried to investigate the ruins many times. We picked up unfamiliar weapons, I arranged my sideburns, and we all headed to the ruins. But we couldn't get close to them. Every time we tried to walk towards the ruins we would end up in front of the village gates. Even if we walk towards them in a straight line, we can't get close to those ruins."

Naruto felt his canines elongating at the chief's words and knew he had to leave soon. He grabbed Natsu's shoulder and saw that his nails had gotten longer and sharper. "Natsu I'm going to check on the ship and make sure that the pirates haven't taken off. I'**ll be back soon**." With that Naruto bolted out of the village before he could get a reply. He stopped some distance away and looked at himself in a nearby river. He saw that his eyes had turned red and his pupil were now thin, predatory slits, his hair had grown shaggier and longer, his canines had gotten sharper and longer than normal, and his whisker marks had gotten darker and thicker. 'Alright just calm down, Naruto. They might be demons, but that's no reason to get so worked up. They seem nice and nothing like the others. They didn't attack you. They didn't kill anyone you know. They are harmless. No need to use _that._ You just have to make it to the end of the year. As long as you can keep it under wraps until then no one will find out, you won't be compromised, the council won't be alerted, and the entire guild won't be exposed due to one tiny fuck up. You're the one who wanted to do this. You're the one who begged Jiji for this chance. You're the one who promised him that you could keep it under control. And I'm Naruto Uzumaki and I never break a promise, dattebayo.' With his mental psych up complete Naruto was able to calm himself down enough to return to normal.

The blond returns to the camp and notice that everyone is standing around the tower in the middle of the village. He approaches Gray and Lucy to ask what is happening. "What's everyone looking at?"

"Erza's using her Giant's Armor and throwing her Evil Crushing Spear to destroy the moon." Gray says in disbelief, not registering that Naruto had just appeared.

"Oh, got it. Then why is Natsu up there with Neechan?"

"He's supposed to punch the spear as she throws it to increase the distance and power."

"Sounds like a plan."

Gray turns his head to stare at Naruto in disbelief. "Are you insane? Huh? Naruto, where were you?"

Before Gray could get an answer Erza starts to throw the spear. "Natsu, now!" with that Natsu punches the spear and it is launched into the sky. Everyone looks on in suspense over what will happen. As the spear continues to rise Erza starts to scream at it. "REACH IT!" The spear hits the purple moon and cracks start to form on its surface. The villagers start to cheer at the sight.

"You've got to be kidding me!" Gray and Lucy scream in shock.

The cracks begin to extend out from the moon and into the sky itself before it shatters. A giant hole is now in the sky that shows the real moon that is the correct color. The sky starts to shatter and rain down onto the island in pretty sparkles. "She didn't break the moon. She broke the sky?" Lucy says in confusion as she holds out her hands to catch the sparkles.

Natsu rushes to the railing to get a better look. "What's going on?"

Erza walks up next to him and explains. "This island was covered in an evil lens."

"A lens?"

"A gas was released during the _Moon Drip_ ceremony. It then crystallized and formed a lens over the island that made the moon look purple. With the lens broken the island will return to normal."

The villagers started to glow as the lens pieces dispersed. When they stop glowing they still have their demonic appearance. "Why aren't they going back to normal?" Gray wonders aloud.

"They are back to normal." Naruto says in a strained voice, "Their normal appearance is that of demons."

"You're right. The lens affected their memories not their appearances." Erza elaborates as she walks up behind the mages.

"Memories?" Lucy asks still confused.

"The false memory that they become demons at night. In reality they were always demons."

Lucy collapses to the ground in shock as Gray questions one of the villagers who admits that Erza is right.

"They have the ability to turn into humans. So they all thought that those were their true forms. That's what _Moon Drip_ made them think." Erza explains.

"Lyon and the others were unaffected because they are human. Only demons are affected by the false memories." Naruto says as he edges towards the gate. "Demons are beings of darkness and destruction so they are unable to approach holy ruins, making it impossible to investigate themselves."

"Impressive. I'm glad I left this in your hands." A purple demon wearing a cloak walks into the village. He raises his hand in greeting. "Thank you, mages."

Lucy and Happy cling to each other as they scream something about ghosts. Gray points to him and offers a saner explanation. "You're the old man from the boat."

The chief starts to tremble and whispers, "Bobo."

The other villagers stare at him in shock. "But we stabbed you…"

Bobo laughs and explains, "We demons don't die from being stabbed in the chest."

"Only if you do it right." Naruto darkly mutters to himself. Luckily no one hears him.

"But you disappeared from the boat." Gray points out. Bobo then disappears in front of their eyes shocking Gray, Lucy, and Happy.

Above them Bobo floats in the air using his wings. "Sorry I didn't tell you the truth back then. I escaped from the island because I was the only one who regained their memories. All of the villagers thought they were humans and were afraid of me." He explains. Suddenly the chief unfurls his wings and rushes into the air. He tackles Bobo and wraps him in a hug. "Finally back to normal, huh, dad." Bobo says as he returns the hug.

The demon villagers all take to the sky and fly around Bobo, cheering that he is alive and crying with joy. "Demon Island is right." Erza says as she looks on at the reunion.

Natsu rejoins the group and smiles. "But if you look at them, now… They look more like angels than demons." The team agrees and looks on with smiles.

That night the demons and fairies had a grand feast and partied long into the morning. Gray was immensely popular with the ladies and spent most of his time dancing with them, Natsu impressed the villagers by eating fire and insane amounts of food, Lucy, Happy, and Erza spent the night talking to the chief and Bobo, and Naruto was the only one that didn't partake in the festivities. He ate his food by the gate and claimed to be keeping watch, but never said what he was watching for.

**A/N: Alright chapter took longer than expected, but it's done. Sorry about that, forgot to take in account studying for finals. So Naruto has some past issues with demons and a freaky magic that transforms his features. Why does he need to keep it a secret? What would happen if the council found out? If you are wondering this then tough shit, because I don't plan on going into that until at least the Oracion Seis Arc. It's late so thanks for reading.**


	5. Chapter 5: Phantom's Revenge

**Hidden Guild: Silent Leaf**

**Chapter 5: Phantom's Revenge**

**Disclaimer: I own neither Fairy Tail nor Naruto they belong to Mashima Hiro and Kishimoto Masashi respectively**

**A/N: Fifth chapter time for the Phantom Arc. I wanted to start this last chapter, but the word count was getting way too high so now I'm ending Galuna Island and starting Phantom. One of the reviews mentioned how I was closely following canon. It's true there won't be many major changes until the Oracion Seis Arc. I don't really have any idea on how to change the Phantom and Fighting Festival Arcs so they will mostly follow canon events.**

"Talking"

'Thinking'

**"Demon Talking"**

_'Flashback'_

_Magic/Magic Item_

**Location/Time Change**

**Village Morning after the Party**

Lucy is crouched on her hands and knees as she examines Gray's forehead while he is sitting down as they wait for the others. "It looks like your wound will leave a scar." She mentions as she looks at the injury above his left eyebrow.

"Huh? That doesn't bother me." Gray replies with a neutral expression.

"But it's on your face." Lucy points out.

"I don't care where I get scarred. As long as they can be seen."

Lucy smirks and winks at Gray sexily. "Oh, that's deep."

Natsu, Naruto, and Happy chose this moment to arrive. They are packed and carrying their stuff while Natsu holds two torches and eats from them like they're cotton candy. Naruto walks behind him slurping ramen noodles from a bowl. "Huh?" Natsu questions around a bite of fire. "What kind of injuries are invisible?"

"Shut up. I was trying to say something cool, so don't ruin it." Gray reprimands the fire eating mage.

"That was cool?" Natsu's words start another one of the pair's infamous fights. Naruto wisely stays out of it and walks over to where Erza was talking with the chief.

"What? You won't take the reward?" The chief asks in surprise.

"That's right. Your gratitude is all that we need." Erza says with a small smile.

"But…"

"Like I said before, our guild never officially accepted this job. Just a couple of idiots who ran off to do a job on their own."

The chief chuckles at her reasoning. "Even so, you still saved us. If we offer it as a gift instead of a reward will you accept it?"

Natsu and Gray stop their fight and look on the scene hopefully with Lucy. They wait in anticipation for Erza's answer. "It's hard to say no when you put it that way." The villagers and mages hopes are raised at Erza's response. Only Naruto knows better as he sneaks back behind Lucy and makes clones that wait behind Natsu and Gray.

"Seven million jewels." Gray says in his excitement.

Natsu starts to breathe fire out of his nose at the thought of all that money. Lucy's eyes light up at Erza's words, "All right!"

Erza continues to speak, "However taking that would be against our guild's principles. We will be happy to just take the key as a token of your thanks."

Naruto's clones clamp their hands over Natsu and Gray's mouths before they can complain and he grabs Lucy's before she can celebrate. He has his clones bring the mages in close so that they can hear him, but the villagers and Erza can't, "You all are lucky that you're getting anything at all. So help me Kami, if I hear one peep out of either of you two I will dust off my old pranking plans and make your lives hell." He whispers to Natsu and Gray in a menacing hiss. "And you." Naruto swivels his head towards Lucy, making her 'eep' in fright. "If I hear a complaint on the way back to the guild about anything, anything at all. I will sell that key to the highest bidder and keep all the money as collateral for getting me dragged to this Kami forsaken island."

The irate blond had been pushed to the edge with the combination of not being able to return to his comfy bed and being dragged on a mission to a demon infested island. He gives off a death glare to his captured audience. "Nod your head once if you understand." Once the terrified mages had given him their nods of confirmation he releases them. "That's what I thought." Naruto then left to follow Erza to the ship docked on the beach.

The rule-breaking mages were left standing huddled together and fearfully staring after Naruto in fear. They all had the same thought going through their minds, 'He spends too much time around Erza.'

At the beach the villagers and Fairy Tail mages look on, stunned at what they were seeing. Docked by the beach was a large pirate ship with a dragon-shaped figurehead, red paint job with black trim, and black sails with a jolly roger painted on it.

Gray stared at it in disbelief. "A pirate ship?!" Was all that he could manage to get out.

"You hijacked a pirate ship?" Lucy questions.

"As expected of Erza-sama." Happy cheers.

On board the pirates happily wave down to Erza with a Naruto clone joining them. He was holding a mug of rum and was loudly partying with the pirates. "Hey, Neechan! Boss! I kept the ship safe like you said. And don't worry the pirates weren't any trouble at all." He was proved right when the pirates happily told them to come aboard and even referred to Erza as 'Madame'.

"Kept the ship safe my ass. He probably cut the pirates loose and started partying as soon as we were out of earshot." Naruto grumbles as they board the ship.

"Why do you say that, Naruto?" Lucy asks as she climbs up behind him.

"It's what I would have done."

As the ship starts to set sail the villagers wave at the mages. "Everyone, thank you so much!" Bobo calls out as they are leaving.

"Stay well!" Lucy yells back as she leans over the rail and waves goodbye.

"Come back and dance with us again." "Good luck on your jobs." "Fairy Tail's the best." "Come back and visit us anytime." And many other shouts were yelled by the villagers as the ship slowly shrunk into the horizon until it couldn't be seen anymore.

**Magnolia**

"We're back!" Natsu happily yells as they walk through the streets of Magnolia on the way back to the guild.

"It was a full blown S-class job and all we got for it was one key." Happy states he then looks at the other mages in confusion as they rapidly shake their heads back and forth. Suddenly he feels an aura of death and pain behind him. When he slowly turns his head he is shocked to see that it wasn't Erza, like he had been expecting, but Naruto that was radiating the malicious aura.

Naruto was giving off his signature foxy grin, but instead of the usual warmth behind it now it held an unspoken promise of horrors that would befall if the flying cat continued to complain. "Happy, it wasn't an official job so this is a reward enough. Isn't it?" Naruto holds up the golden key he was hanging onto until they got back to the guild.

"Aye." Happy says while sweating fearfully at Naruto's current mood. Making the blond nod in satisfaction.

"Oi, Lucy." Naruto calls to the other blond of the group. "Which key is this?"

"The Archer, Sagittarius." Lucy informs him.

"Oh, the horse thing."

"You all seem tense. It's good to see that you haven't forgotten about your punishment." Erza, unaware of Naruto's threats and sour mood, takes the mages silence throughout the trip to be a result of them worrying about breaking the rules, much to her satisfaction.

The four mages freeze at Erza's reminder. 'Shit I forgot.' Was the thought on their minds. They were so busy worrying about Naruto's threats, or in Natsu case motion sick, to remember that they had broken the rules.

"I think that you should be mostly forgiven under the circumstances." Erza's words give hope to the worried mages, but they are quickly dashed by her next words. "However Master will be the judge of that. And I have no intention of defending you."

"Neither do I." Naruto chimes in with a raised hand.

"So be prepared for your punishment." Erza finishes.

"He's not going to make us do _that,_ is he?" Happy asks while shaking in fear.

Gray crouches down and holds his head in his hands, "Wait! I never want to do _that_ again!" he cries out in fear as he begins shaking also.

Lucy has no idea what is going on and is completely terrified. "What is _that_?" She asks while joining Happy and Gray in shaking.

Natsu is the only rule-breaker not having a nervous breakdown. He slides over to Lucy and starts to pat her shoulder to reassure her. "Don't worry. I'm sure that Gramps will be impressed by what a good job we did and will congratulate us." He says with a beaming smile.

Lucy stares at Natsu in disbelief. "You're foolishly optimistic aren't you?"

"No, I'm confident that _that _is already guaranteed. I personally look forward to it." Erza says ominously.

"So am I." Naruto holds up a camera so that they all can see it. "I finally found where my clone put my camera."

As the pseudo-siblings start to darkly chuckle at the quartets presumed misfortune Natsu slowly starts to sweat and loses his confident smile. "Noooo!" he screams and tries to run, but Erza is ready for him and grabs him by the scarf before she starts to drag him to the guild. "Anything but _that_!" Natsu uselessly shouts as he tries to claw his way to freedom.

Happy and Gray follow after the screaming mage with the dejected slump of men heading towards the gallows. Behind them a confused and terrified Lucy still asks what _that_ was as Naruto and his clones bring up the rear, carrying all the luggage.

As the Fairy Tail mages walk through town they notice that all of the townspeople are whispering about them. As they get closer to the guild they are met with a horrible sight. "OUR GUILD!" Their beautiful guild building had been impaled all over by giant iron pillars.

Lucy lowers her head and holds back tears as the other members have more violent feelings. Natsu and Gray had started to shake in rage. Erza had gained a dangerous aura around her that spoke of pain and suffering for whoever had done this. Naruto's eyes had once again turned red and feral in his rage as a low growl started in the back of his throat. Erza asks the question on everyone's mind. "What happened?"

"Phantom." The answer came from Mira, who had walked up behind the furious mages. "I hate to say it, but they got us good."

Natsu turned around to look at Mira with a dark and serious look on his face. "Did you just say Phantom?"

**Basement of the Fairy Tail Guild**

Mira leads the returning mages down to the basement. It had temporarily been transformed into a makeshift guild hall. Various Fairy Tail mages sat around drinking beer in bad moods. "We've always been on bad terms with Phantom, why attack now?" Jet asks aloud.

"We should go and crush them." Droy says from a table with the rest of Team Shadow Gear.

"Calm down. This is Phantom we're talking about. _That _Phantom." Levy placated her teammate.

"I've got to go make a call." Naruto says as he grabs the _Video Lacrima_ before he marches into a separate room and slams the door.

The remaining members walk up to Master Makarov. He was sitting on the temporary bar, drunk, with a beer in his hand. He cheerfully raises a hand at the approaching mages. "Yo! Welcome back."

"We've returned." Erza manages to get in before Natsu loses it.

He steps forward and angrily raises his fist, "Gramps, what are you sitting around for?! This isn't happy hour!" Natsu yells in a rage.

"You're right." Makarov narrows his eyes. "You guys. How dare you go on an S-class job without permission?!" Makarov raises his hand, "Punishment! I'll give you your punishment now! Prepare yourselves."

They are surprised by Makarov's disregard for the damage to the guild. "Now's not the time for that!" Natsu shouts as flames shoot out of his mouth.

Makarov ignores them and magically extends his hand to hit the offending mages on the head. Except for Lucy, who he smacks on the butt. Mira reprimands the perverted old man while wearing a cute pout.

"Master, don't you understand our current situation?" Even Erza questions Makarov's actions.

Natsu's veins are popping on his forehead as he tries to hold back his anger. "They wrecked our guild!"

Suddenly Naruto was once again heard yelling at an unknown person on the lacrima. "What?! You mean we don't have anything we can do?! They attacked first. We have to be able to do something about that!" there was a short silence as the mages looked to where Naruto was, presumably, getting an answer. They didn't have long to wait until he was heard again. "Evidence?! There are over a dozen fucking iron pillars in our guild! Who the hell else could have done it?!" After that there was silence.

Makarov gained everyone's attention with a cough. "Calm down. There's no need to make a fuss about it."

"What?" The mages are stunned at his words.

"Phantom, right? This is as far as they'll go. All they did was attack an empty building. I don't see why they even bothered." Makarov says as he casually takes a swig from his mug.

"Nobody was here?" Erza asks.

"It seems like they attacked at night." Mira informs her.

"So that's why no one was hurt. We were lucky."

"If all they can do is launch sneak attacks we shouldn't even bother about those cowards. Just leave them be." Makarov says while waving them off.

Natsu smashes his fist into a nearby crate and makes a hole in it. "I can't accept it! I won't be satisfied until we crush them!" He yells.

"This discussion is over. We'll take requests down here until the guild is fixed." Makarov announces with an air of finality.

Natsu doesn't get the message though, "We don't have time to be doing jobs!"

"Natsu, I've heard enough out of you!" Makarov yells back. He raises his hand, but instead of hitting Natsu he smacks Lucy's butt again.

"Why are you hitting me then?" Lucy asks in embarrassment.

Mira puts her hands on her hips and pouts at Makarov again. "Master, don't test me."

Makarov shrinks his hand back to normal and jumps off the makeshift bar. "Hang on. I have to take a leak." With that the diminutive man leaves.

Natsu looks at the floor, "Why're you okay with this. Gramps?" he asks in confusion.

"Natsu." Mira softly calls out, "This is just as hard on him, you know. But the council prohibits fighting between guilds."

"But they attacked us first." Natsu defended.

"That's not the issue and you know it."

"If that's how the master feels… There's nothing we can do." Erza dejectedly says.

"Son of a bitch!" The explicative comes from the room Naruto is in followed by a crash and the sound of breaking glass. The irate blond mage stalks out of the room and heads for the door.

"Naruto, where are you going?" Lucy calls after the furious wind and clone mage.

"To buy a new _Video Lacrima_." Naruto answers before slamming the door behind him.

Outside the guild Naruto creates a clone and throws his toad-shaped wallet at it. "Buy a new lacrima. I have to go talk to an old friend." He commands before heading for his house. 'There better be one hell of an explanation for this.'

**Naruto's House**

Naruto walks into his house and enters the kitchen. Inside he grabs a miso cup ramen and places it into the microwave. He taps his foot as he impatiently waits for it to finish. "I know that you're there, Shikamaru told me. So you can come out now, Sasuke." The blond calls out to the seemingly empty house. In the doorway a pair of red eyes glow in the darkness before a pale young man with black hair that framed his face and was spiked in the back walks forward. In the light he was seen wearing a navy blue, short-sleeved shirt with a high collar, black shorts, black sandals, and bandages that cover his forearms. His red eyes had three tomoes around the pupil before he deactivated his technique and they returned to their normal black.

"Dobe." Was Sasuke's eloquent greeting.

Naruto's food finished and he walked past Sasuke before sitting on the couch. Sasuke took the seat opposite of him and folded his hands under his chin. Naruto began to eat and talk at the same time. "You missed the last meeting. Did Shikamaru fill you in yet or did you tell him that Gajeel had attacked the guild and hang up before he could say anything?"

"He brought me up to speed."

"Good, 'cause I don't want to explain everything." Naruto slurps the rest of his ramen before putting the bowl down. "Now tell me what's going to happen."

"Jose is still pissed over what happened at the masters meeting. He sent Gajeel to try and start a war now that Gildarts is gone, Laxus won't assist Makarov if he doesn't get anything out of it, Mirajane can't use her magic anymore, he's counting on Mystogan to be off Kami-knows where, and is getting paid _a lot_ of money. You should know something, the plan revolves around capturing the Heartfilia girl."

"Lucy?" Naruto raises an eyebrow at his best friend. "Why?"

"Apparently her father is paying a lot of money to get her back. That was all Jose needed to finally act. I don't know how he plans to get Fairy Tail involved, Gajeel was put in charge of that, but this won't be the end of it. Especially since Makarov isn't planning to retaliate and Gajeel wasn't told to do anything specific other than not harming Heartfilia." Sasuke leans back in Naruto's chair. "The plan is to capture her while the guilds are fighting. Jose also is going to have Aria steal Makarov's magic so that he can't fight back. Be careful, if the fight doesn't end at Phantom Lord Jose plans to bring the fight to Fairy Tail."

Naruto gives Sasuke a hard look. "We'll be ready." He says with complete confidence.

"I'll be waiting for you, dobe." Sasuke says with a smirk.

"And I'll be looking for you, teme." Naruto says with a smirk of his own.

The friends stand up and clasp hands. They share a grin at the thought of facing each other in the upcoming battle. Sasuke walks towards the door. When he puts his hand on the knob he pauses and turns back to Naruto. "Remember this has to happen, there's too much tension for it to be allowed to continue, and whoever loses will be reassigned."

Naruto gives off his foxy grin that he had seen a million times before. "Then I hope you are packed and ready to move, teme."

"Hn." With a final grunt Sasuke exits the orange house and disappears in black flames.

'Still a showoff.' Naruto thinks to himself. He then gets the memories of the clone that he had buy the new lacrima. Naruto turns around and goes into his bedroom. 'Heh, looks like there's a sleepover at Lucy's tonight.' The blond thinks to himself as he starts to pack. 'And I was so looking forward to my own bed too.'

**Lucy's house**

Inside Lucy's home Natsu, Gray, Erza, Naruto, and Happy were sitting around Lucy's table after eating a dinner of fish. Erza had swapped her armor for a white, sleeveless blouse and was sipping tea, Natsu was sullenly slouching on the floor, Happy was eating a fish, and Gray and Naruto were playing cards while they waited for Lucy. They didn't have long to wait as Lucy opens the door while talking to Plue, her small, white celestial spirit. "THE BEST!" Lucy screams her last words as she sees the mages in her house.

They decide to be courteous to their unknowing host and friend,

"Yo."

"Welcome."

"What's up?"

"You have a nice room."

"Hey, Lucy."

"So many intruders!" Lucy screams as she hurls her suitcase at them. It hits Natsu in the face and knocks him over.

Erza calmly sips her cup of tea before explaining why they were here. "The incident with Phantom means that they've come to town. It's possible that they managed to get our addresses."

Lucy is shocked by the possibility that Phantom members could know where she lives and suddenly feels much better about having guests in her house.

"I don't think that it will happen," Gray reassures Lucy. "But just in case they do attack Mira had everyone get into groups."

"I see." Lucy mutters.

"Everyone is having a sleepover today." Happy informs Lucy with a raised paw.

"You are of marriageable age, I wouldn't be comfortable if you were alone with Natsu and Gray for the night. That's why I decided to join you." Erza calmly explains.

Naruto raises a hand, "I normally bunk with Neechan, so I'm here for the night too."

"We're not here to relax!" Natsu emphasized with a clenched fist.

"So Natsu and Gray coming over was a given?" Lucy asks in a defeated voice. "And why is everyone at my house?"

"Because Neechan lives in the all-girls dorms at Fairy Hills, Natsu and Happy's place is a mess, and the places where Gray and I live are too small." Naruto explains as he shows Gray his full house. The ice mage throws down his cards in defeat and goes over to sit on Lucy's bed as Naruto counts his winnings.

The mages start to explore the house, much to Lucy's chagrin. Happy goes through her clothes and shows Erza her 'kinky' underwear, which Erza questions how she can wear them. Natsu and Plue start to eat a bag of candy while making a mess, Gray tries to go to sleep on her bed in only his boxers again, and Naruto goes through her stuff, eventually finding the book Lucy is writing. "You're all really making yourselves at home, aren't you?" Lucy notices.

Erza puts her underwear down and glares at the guys, "You all stink. We're sleeping in the same room, so at least take a shower."

"Don't want to."

"Too tired."

"Make me."

Erza gathers the three of them into a hug. "I guess there's no other way. We can all bathe together." The men and Lucy are all disturbed by Erza's suggestion.

"What kind of relationship do you have?!" Lucy screams in surprise.

Naruto slips away first. "I'm going first." He rushes down the hall and enters the first room he sees.

"Uh… Naruto." Lucy hesitantly starts to call out to her fellow blond until he walks back out of the room.

"Don't say anything." He commands as he opens the door on the other side of the hall and enters the bathroom.

"Which room did he walk into?" Happy asks.

Lucy giggles into her hand. "That was the closet."

The other mages laugh at what Naruto had done. And pass the time talking as they take turns using the bathroom.

Ironically Lucy was the last one to use her own bath. After she got out she changed into a white shirt and pink, calf-length pants. When she walked into her room she saw that Erza was sitting on her bed in purple pajamas with stylized crosses, Natsu was still sulking on the table, and Gray and Naruto were by her desk reading something.

Lucy sat down at the table next to Natsu. "But why would Phantom attack us now?" Lucy wonders aloud.

"Who knows?" Erza says. "We've had a lot of smaller issues before, but they've never attacked us directly, until now."

"If Gramps would quit being scared we could go and crush those bastards." Natsu angrily said with his head on the table.

"Gramps isn't scared." Gray looks up from the papers he was reading, "After all, he is one of the Ten Wizard Saints."

Lucy notices what Gray and Naruto were reading and is mortified. She rushes over to their sides and snatches the papers out of their grasps. "What do you think you're reading so carelessly?" She questions.

"Hey I wanted to see what happens next." Gray protests.

"Come on, Lucy. I was just getting to the good parts." Naruto complains.

Lucy shakes her head as she hugs her story to her chest. "No way! It's already been decided that Levy-chan will be my first reader." Lucy quickly looks to Erza and changes the subject. "Anyways, what were you saying about the Wizard Saints?"

"It's a title given to the strongest ten mages on the continent. The Chairman of the Wizard Council appoints them personally." Erza explains.

"Amazing."

"Phantom's Master, Jose, is also a Wizard Saint." Happy informs Lucy.

Naruto snorts at the mention of the Chairman and Council. "Considering who appoints them I'm surprised Gramps was even considered for the position." He cynically grumbles.

"Eh? Don't you think the master deserves it?" Lucy was surprised at Naruto's words. She had believed that he had the utmost respect for Makarov.

Naruto clarified what he had meant. "It's not Gramps, it's the council. They appoint the mages that are strong and will look good in public. With Fairy Tail's rep I'm shocked that Gramps was given the title. Jose too for that matter."

"But Master is really strong. Why wouldn't they give it to him?"

"There are a lot of strong mages out there. But there isn't a competition or test that has to be passed. The only requirements are to have a lot of power and a reputation or strong position. Other than that it's all up to the council. So, logically, they will try to make themselves look better by promoting council members or mages that don't have a reputation for being the most destructive in Fiore."

"But Master doesn't have anything like that."

Naruto deadpans at Lucy, "Is he a Fairy Tail mage?" he rhetorically asks.

"Yes." Was Lucy's hesitant response.

"Then he has a reputation for destruction. No matter if you actually cause it or not, if you're from Fairy Tail it is assumed that you will destroy anything that you touch."

Lucy is horrorstruck at the implications. "Then will I get a reputation like that?"

"I wouldn't be surprised if you did. You are on the team with three of the top five most destructive men in Fairy Tail." Naruto pointed out.

Lucy falls to her knees and cries anime tears. "I don't want to be famous like that."

Natsu slams his hands onto the table. "Gramps is scared!" Natsu declares with conviction. "All Phantom has going for it are numbers!"

"That's not it Natsu and you know it." Naruto says with closed eyes. "Phantom Lord and Fairy Tail are the top two guilds in the entire country. If we were to fight it could throw the magical world into chaos. Mira-chan and Gramps know this and want to avoid it at all costs."

"Besides that, if we were to fight we would still end up bringing the Council down on our heads." Gray points out. "It's not worth the risk."

Lucy is surprised by the severity of the consequences if the two guilds were to fight. "Is Phantom really that great?"

Flames surround Natsu, "Those guys ain't nothing." he says with a confident smirk.

"No. If things came to blows, both of our guilds would be destroyed." Erza says with an unbiased look at things. "Our strengths are about equal at the moment. Master Makarov and Master Jose are both Wizard Saints said to have an equal amount of magical power. After them are the Elemental 5, which are equal to our S-class mages. The last and biggest worry is their ace, 'Black Steel' Gajeel, the iron dragon slayer and presumed culprit of the last attack." Erza lists the makeup of the upper tiers of Phantom Lord.

"Dragon Slayer?!" Lucy says in shock. "There are more than just Natsu?"

"Of course there are, otherwise Natsu wouldn't be the _Fire _Dragon Slayer just the Dragon Slayer." Naruto lazily points out.

"But does that mean he eats iron and stuff?" Lucy's only answer was a shrug.

**Phantom Lord Guild**

A muscular young man with long, spiky, black hair that was slicked back sat at a table eating iron scraps and bolts. While he is eating another member of Phantom Lord walked up to him. "Gajeel, I heard that you attacked Fairy Tail. I bet their spirits are crushed right now." Gajeel bites his metal in half and stops eating in annoyance. The other mage continues to talk, unaware of the danger he is in. "Serves them right." He says while cackling. Suddenly Gajeel turns his arm into an iron pillar which he uses to hit the man in the face and launch him into the wall.

The other guild members laugh at their comrade's misfortune. "I've told you before. Don't talk to me while I am eating. Trash." Gajeel says as he turns his arm back to normal. Gajeel stands up and reveals that he has red eyes with slitted pupils, elongated canines, and metal studs on his nose, over his eyes, on his chin, and in his ears. He is wearing a shabby, black, sleeveless tunic that has studded edges, a studded belt, studded brown gloves and wristbands, and a pair of studded black boots with loose, beige pants tucked into them. On the right side of his shoulder he has a feather-like ornament that goes over his right shoulder. His guild mark is on his right shoulder and he has four studs in his arms with the right one covered in scars. "Who cares about those Fairy assholes?" Gajeel asks with an annoyed expression. "We're the stronger guild."

Behind Gajeel a figure appears shrouded in shadows. "The wheels of war have been set in motion. Good work, Gajeel-san." He praises.

"Not so fast, Master." He calls out over his shoulder. "The trash won't act from just that." An insane smile creeps its way onto Gajeel's studded visage. "So I decided to leave them an extra present."

"Well, well… Just be sure to keep _that_ person alive." The newly recognized Jose says with a malicious smirk.

"Gihihi." Only the sound of Gajeel's disturbing signature laugh was heard in the guild hall.

In the shadows in the back of the guild Sasuke slowly sips from a cup of sake. 'Gajeel, I hope you didn't take this too far. Depending on what you did Naruto may try to kill you first.' He thinks to himself as he carefully pours another cup. His eyes turn red and start to glow in the darkness. 'I've been waiting for this rematch for over three years, I don't want to miss it just because some idiot pissed the dobe off.'

**Magnolia Southgate Park**

A large crowd had gathered around the tree in the middle of the park. Erza was leading the way through the crowd For her fellow mages. When the mages finally see what everyone was murmuring about they become furious. Crucified to the tree are the beaten and bloody forms of Jet, Levy, and Droy. They were all held to the tree with iron braces around their wrists, their clothing was ripped and dirty, while blood was running down their faces, and to add insult to injury the Phantom Lord mark had been branded on Levy's stomach.

"Levy-chan." Lucy whispers in horror at what had been done to her friend.

"Jet! Droy!" Gray calls out to them, but gets no response.

Natsu, Erza, and Naruto start to unconsciously release their magical power as they shake in rage. Suddenly the crowd starts to part as Master Makarov walks towards the injured mages. He had a serious look on his face and had changed from his normal goofy orange outfit to a white tunic covered by a white coat with white fur around the edges and the Wizard Saint emblem on the back and black pants. He walks up to the tree and gazes upon the figures of Team Shadow Gear. He lowers his head and covers it with his left hand while he holds his staff in his right.

Makarov begins to slowly speak, "I can live with them wrecking our guild… But no parent can stand by as the blood of their children is spilled." With those words Makarov's voice gains a dark tone and he crushes his staff into splinters with one hand. Makarov's face transforms into one of righteous anger and his magical power is released, completely dwarfing the other three mages. He speaks in a low, dark, ominous tone that promises pain. "This means war!"

**Oak Town Phantom Lord Guild**

Inside the members were celebrating Fairy Tail's misfortune. "This is great! Those Fairy's got their asses burned, bad." One of the members said with a laugh.

"That's not all." Another member said. "I heard that Gajeel went and took out three more of them."

Three of the members head to the large double doors. "We're going to do some work. And on the way back we might pluck a couple of Fairy wings in the process." Before the members reach the doors, they are blown off of their hinges by a massive blast of flames that sends the mages flying to the back of the guild. The Phantom Lord mages all leap from their seats to face anyone who would dare attack them.

As the smoke clears they are greeted with the sight of most of the Fairy Tail guild. However they weren't the normal happy and fun mages that everyone was used to, instead they were a serious and dangerous force that was out for blood. The assembled mages had looks of fury and contempt as they stood behind Makarov, except Natsu who had broken the doors, and faced the Phantom mages. Master Makarov announced their presence to the entire guild. "We are Fairy Tail!"

The Fairy Tail mages gave out a cry as they started to attack the other mages. Natsu started off by shooting flames from his feet and burning anyone in range. "Anyone will do… Bring it on!" He cries out in a rage. Around the guild the mages worked together in pairs or by themselves to defeat the Phantom thugs.

Some of the Phantom mages had the bright idea to attack Makarov based on his size. They soon realized their mistake when his eyes glowed gold as he activated his _Titan Magic_ and grew to massive proportions. With a roar he slams his hand onto the offending mages. "You bastards laid your hands on this monster's children!" He cries out in a booming voice as he crushes them, "Don't think for a second that you will be protected by human laws!"

Throughout the guild hall the Fairy Tail mages went wild, Erza slashed mages left and right, Naruto sends them flying with his wind, Gray froze them solid, and even Happy beat his fair share of mages with fish. The Phantom members were starting to doubt the reasoning behind attacking Fairy Tail at their impressive display of strength.

"Jose! Show yourself!" Makarov shouted as he continued to squish mages like grapes.

As Naruto and his clones continued to pummel Phantom members his eyes were darting around the guild hall. 'Where is Sasuke hiding? I thought we were going to fight.' He continues to look for his rival/friend in the crowd.

Unseen by the fighting mages were Gajeel and Sasuke hidden in the rafters. Gajeel scans the crowds looking for the S-rankers, but is only able to find Erza. "Laxus and Mystogan aren't here. Cocky bastards aren't they."

Sasuke raises an eyebrow at Gajeel, "They weren't even near the guild when you busted it up and we aren't supposed to fight them anyways." he pointed out.

"Whatever. Things are still going according to Master Jose's plan. They're doing pretty good for trash." Gajeel says as a crazy smile appears on his face.

"Tch." Was Sasuke's response as he went back to studying Naruto's fighting style.

**Magnolia**

Lucy walked down an empty street while carrying a bag of groceries by herself, disheartened. "Everyone left me behind. Levy-chan and her team need someone to watch after them and I guess that's me. But why was Naruto so insistent that I should be the one watching after them?" Lucy thinks aloud. Suddenly it starts to rain. "Oh no, it's raining when the sun is out." Lucy then notices a figure walking towards her through the rain. "Who's there?"

As the figure gets closer Lucy sees that it is a young woman with long, blue hair that is tightly curled at the ends, blue eyes, pale skin, and a curvaceous figure under a navy blue coat with a fur shawl, a Russian Cossack hat, and black pants and shoes. As she got closer, Lucy began to make out what she was muttering. "Drip, drip, drip. Yes, Juvia is the rain-woman. Drip, drip, drip."

Lucy is disturbed by Juvia's words and lack of expression and shies away when she approaches. "Who are you?" Juvia asks without stopping.

"Um… who are you?" Lucy fearfully questions.

Juvia pulls out a pink umbrella as she walks past Lucy. "I had fun. Farewell."

Lucy confused by Juvia's actions. "What was that all about?"

"Non, non, non. Non, non, non. Non, non, non, non, non, non, non." A voice calls out from behind Lucy, making her and Juvia turn around. Out of the ground came a slim man with green hair spiked up and a thin, small, pointed green moustache. He had a monocle covering his right eye and was wearing a brown suit with a ragged collar that had three large protrusions on either side of him over a white shirt with a red tie, brown shoes, and had a black cape that connected his elbows. He was standing at an awkward angle, with his feet still in the ground, his back bent behind and to the right of him, and his head stayed straight while he threw his arm out in a grandiose pose. "Bonjour, with a non in a 3-3-7 rhythm."

"Another weirdo." Lucy says in despair.

"Juvia-sama, you can't just abandon your mission." The man says as he moves his body back and forth.

"Monsieur Sol." Juvia says with no emotion.

The man moves around Lucy and leans in to talk to Juvia, with his feet never leaving the earth. "My monocle is telling me that lovely mademoiselle is our cible." He says while holding said monocle.

"Oh, so she's the one?" Juvia turns back to Lucy who was making the translation of 'cible' to 'target' and becoming wary of their intentions.

The man bends sideways at the waist and makes a bow-like motion while keeping his head at the same angle as his torso. "I am sorry for my lack of manners. I'm Sol of the Earth, a member of the Element 5. You may call me Monsieur Sol. We've come to collect you for the great Phantom Lord." Sol motions his hand to introduce Juvia. "This is the rain-woman of the Element 5, Juvia of the Deep."

Lucy drops her bag and goes to the keys on her belt. "How dare you attack Levy-chan!" She demands as she pulls out her keys. Suddenly a sphere of water forms around Lucy and cuts of her oxygen.

Sol starts to twirl his moustache as he speaks. "Non, non, non. I'd like to clear up your error with three nons. Attacking the guild and hurting Levy-sama was all done by Gajeel-sama." Sol clarified as Lucy uselessly pounded on the water sphere. "It is true that everyone in the guild agreed with the plan, however."

"What is this?" Lucy asks as she continues to struggle.

"Juvia's _Water Lock_ cannot be broken." The rain-woman refers to herself in the third person as she answers the question.

Slowly Lucy's struggles die down and eventually stop. She loses consciousness and drops her keys.

"Très bien!" Sol says as he continues to perform his odd movements.

"Don't be afraid. Juvia will not kill you." She says as they look on at Lucy's floating figure. "Because it is Juvia's job to capture Lucy Heartfilia-sama."

"Victoire!" With Sol's words the pair take Lucy away and leave her keys lying in a puddle as it continues to rain.

**Phantom Lord Guild**

The Fairy Tail mages continue to annihilate the Phantom members. Throughout the guild the members were using their respective magics to eliminate their opponents. A lull in the fighting appears and the members regroup. Makarov walks up the steps towards the guild's top floor, "Erza, I'm leaving you in charge." he calls down while tossing mages left and right. "Jose is probably at the top floor. I'm gonna go and rip him a new one."

Erza wants to call him back or offer to help, but knows that it is a personal matter for him. All she can do is watch him leave and give her support. "Take care."

Across the guild, Naruto stops beating mages to a pulp and sees Makarov heading upstairs. He remembers what Sasuke had said about Phantom's plan. "Gramps, wait!" He calls as he tries to reach Makarov, but is forced to stop and duck under a sword that nearly takes of his head. Naruto jumps back and stands up to see his opponent. He narrows his eyes, "It's about time you showed up, teme."

Across from Naruto stood Sasuke holding a chokuto. He sends the sword back into storage and faces off with Naruto. "Hn. Dobe."

"I should have known that you weren't going to let me stop Jose's plan that easily. What's your game?" Naruto questions as they start to circle each other.

"Beat me and I'll tell you." With that Sasuke's arms start to crackle with lightning and he charges Naruto, who encases his arms in wind and meets Sasuke's charge. The two mages start to engage in magically enhanced hand-to-hand combat.

Up in the rafters Gajeel shakes his head at Sasuke's actions. "Bastard didn't even wait till Makarov was gone. Wonder what he has against the blond scum." Gajeel watched Makarov bust down the doors and head upstairs. "Well now that the biggest threat is gone, I can finally cut loose." With that Gajeel jumps from the rafters and laughs the entire way down. He lands on top of the Phantom Lord sign and claims the attention of all the fighting mages.

"It's him." Erza says. "The Iron Dragon Slayer, 'Black Steel' Gajeel."

The Native American looking mage, Nab, attempts to attack Gajeel. "How dare you attack Levy!"

Gajeel effortlessly turns his arm into an iron pillar and slams it into Nab's gut. He then plows Nab into the ground and drags him across the floor, hitting his fellow guild members in the process.

The Fairy Tail mages are shocked at Gajeel's actions. "What's wrong with him? He even took out his own comrades with that attack." Gray questions.

Gajeel drops to the ground as he retracts the pillar and returns his arm to normal. "Hey, trash, come and get me. The Iron Dragon Slayer, Gajeel-sama is at your service." He arrogantly challenges.

"Man!" An angry cry precedes Elfman's charge as he turns his right arm into his Iron Bull form with his _Take Over: Beast Soul Magic_. "I may be trash, but I'm still a man!"

Gajeel turns his right arm into another pillar to block Elfman's punch. "Elfman, huh." Gajeel disengages his block and sends the pillar at Elfman's head. He avoids it and Gajeel then changes his leg into a pillar and sends it at Elfman, who catches it with his hand. "Oh? Not bad."

"A man must be strong." Was Elfman's stoic response.

"Then how about this?" Gajeel makes even more iron pillars that form out of his leg. The pillars miss Elfman and end up hitting more Phantom mages.

Elfman lets go off Gajeel's leg, which returns to normal, and turns to look at what he had done. "Damn you. Look what you're doing to your own comrades, bastard."

Gajeel notices Elfman is distracted and acts upon it. He rears his fist back, "Pay attention." Elfman looks back at Gajeel's words and is just in time to take an iron pillar to the face.

As he goes flying backwards Natsu uses him like a stepping stone to get close to Gajeel. "Gajeel!" With a cry, Natsu lands a clean flaming punch on the overextended Dragon Slayer and sends him into the wall.

The Phantom mages were stunned. "I've never seen Gajeel get hit like that before." One of them mutters.

Natsu stands with flaming fists held high. "I'm Fairy Tail's Dragon Slayer." He tells Gajeel as he pulls himself up. Natsu turns back to Elfman, who had just picked himself off the floor. "Elfman let me fight him."

"You bastard. First you use me as a platform and then you want to interrupt a battle between men?" Elfman grumbles as he rubs his head.

Before Natsu can get an answer, Gajeel attacks. "_Iron Dragon's Pillar!" _Gajeel turns his right arm into a large pillar and slams it into Natsu's chest, pushing him across the guild.

Natsu holds onto the pillar as steam starts to waft up from his body. "This guy hurt Levy, the others, and busted up our guild." His hands are engulfed in flames as he grabs the pillar before hurling Gajeel into the wall. "So I'm gonna send you to hell!"

Gajeel climbs out of the rubble. "That didn't affect me." Gajeel claims.

"Doesn't look like that to me."

"You sure?" Gajeel rushes Natsu and kicks him through several tables and mages. Gajeel walks up to the pile of destruction. "Come on, bring it. You're not affected either, are you?"

A burst of flames removes the rubble and reveals Natsu. "You know me pretty good there…"

The Dragon Slayers both wear matching insane, sinister grins as they face off. "You're one hot and annoying bastard, you know that?" Gajeel says as a green magical seal forms in front of his right arm.

A matching red seal forms over Natsu's right arm as it bursts into flames. "Shut up, you hard-ass."

"I'll crush you!" Gajeel launches another iron pillar at Natsu, who catches it with his flaming hand.

"Don't get ahead of yourself, you scrap-iron bastard!" With a yell Natsu's entire body is covered in flames and he crushes the end of the pillar with his hand.

Gajeel raises a non-existing eyebrow, "Oh? That's some power you've got. Just like the rumors say." He retracts his hand, which is now steaming, and shakes it. "Is that all you've got, Salamander?"

"Don't worry about that." Natsu raises a flaming fist, "That was just a friendly hello. Before our real fight.

The Dragon Slayers rush each other and start to exchange blows. Gajeel knocks Natsu back with a kick, but he is able to right himself and sends an uppercut to counter Gajeel's incoming double kick. The Iron Dragon Slayer is forced to use Natsu's shoulders as a platform to avoid the hit and jumps up to the rafters, which he sticks to upside down with iron hooks on the bottom of his feet. Natsu follows him and delivers a solid punch that Gajeel blocks, but is still sent upwards through several rafters.

He lands upside down again and crosses his arms. "You've got a little bit of a destructive streak, don't you?" Gajeel mentions as several pieces of the rafters fall around them.

Natsu was crouched on another rafter. "I'm all fired up now."

Across the guild an explosion of wind and lightning engulfed most of the mages. In the center Naruto and Sasuke stood across from each other. "Seems like you're not the only one." Gajeel comments.

**Naruto vs. Sasuke**

Sasuke and Naruto stood with their arms crossed in the crater they had just made from their last magically charged punches. "Oi, teme. Don't tell me that's all you've got. You were stronger when we were kids." Naruto called out.

Sasuke felt a tic form on his head. There was only one person that could piss him off this much and this fast. It wasn't Itachi when he went on one of his stupid lectures, it wasn't Sakura when she used to fawn over his every action, it wasn't even the fangirls that plagued him on a daily bases. No that privilege was reserved for the man that stood across from him. One Naruto Uzumaki, his best friend and rival. Sasuke couldn't decide if Naruto was taunting him being only able to use mainly _Lightning Magic _to keep his cover or if he had genuinely forgotten about it and thought he was holding back. Either way he was going to make the dobe eat his words.

Sasuke brought his left hand up and made a sweeping movement across his body, "_Lightning Spikes._" With that hundreds of tiny lightning bolts sped at Naruto. The blond was forced to run around the guild to avoid them and then jumped into the air.

"_Wind Bullets!" _Naruto took a deep breath and then started to spit bursts of wind at Sasuke, forcing him to dodge.

"Tch." With an annoyed look on his face Sasuke surrounded himself in lightning. "_Lightning Armor." _With that the dark haired mage rushed Naruto at enhanced speeds and delivered a lightning coated fist to the blonde's face. His satisfaction was short lived when 'Naruto' burst into smoke.

Naruto appeared behind Sasuke with a _Spiraling Wind Sphere_ and thrust it at his exposed back. "Gotcha!" The blond called out in triumph. However, in an impressive display of acrobatics, Sasuke reached back and grabbed Naruto's arm. He then pushed it down into the ground, nullifying the attack, and flips over it, before landing on Naruto's back. This turns into a mistake as Naruto is able to surround himself with a tornado that sucks up Sasuke. The tornado then throws him into the wall as Naruto stands up. He looks battered and his clothes are covered in tiny scorch marks, but he is still smiling. "You're not down yet are you?"

'I really hate him.' Sasuke thinks to himself as he pulls himself out of the wall. He was covered in dust and cut all over thanks to Naruto's wind attacks. "If that's how you want to do this then fine!" Sasuke places his hand together and thrusts them forward "_Lightning Make: Dragon!"_ A large blue dragon made of lightning appears and charges towards Naruto.

'Maybe he took that last taunt personally, he always did hate being underestimated.' Naruto thinks to himself at the sight of the lightning dragon. "Alright then. _Twister Dragon Punch!" _Naruto rears his hand back for a punch with the fingers arced like claws and then brings it forward while twisting his arm and forming a fist. A large tornado is formed that has fang-like shapes at the front and collides with the lightning dragon. A large explosion soon followed that was felt throughout the guild and blew away any mage close to the attacks.

Suddenly an even stronger magic was felt by all the mages present. The magic was so strong that the building had started to shake. The Phantom mages were all panicking at the feeling. "What is happening?" One of them calls out.

"This is gonna get ugly." Gray remarks with a smirk.

Erza takes pity on the terrified mages and explains what is happening with a confident look on her face. "This is Master Makarov's wrath. The wrath of a giant that no one can stop."

"That's ridiculous." A Phantom member says. "The entire building is shaking."

Elfman smirks at him, "Master Makarov is a real man. As long as we have him we can't lose."

With that the Fairy Tail mages leap back into the fray. With their confidence boosted and the Phantom mages' eroded they start to make short work of the remaining forces. Only Naruto knows the truth. 'Shit, I spent too much time fighting Sasuke. If Gramps fights Jose Aria will steal his magic. That could get him killed. At least Lucy' safe in Magnolia.' Naruto is then hit with a straight punch and sent sprawling.

Sasuke stands above him with his customary smirk on his face. "You're slipping, dobe. How will you help Makarov like this?"

Naruto stands up with a low growl. "I'll show you, teme!" With that Naruto forms several clones that rush Sasuke.

He lazily sends more _Lightning Spikes _and dispels all of the clones. 'He knows that I can easily beat his clones. What are you planning?' Sasuke's eyes narrow as he scans the smoke cloud, looking for a flash of orange. Suddenly he sees one as it rushes him from the side with a _Spiraling Wind Sphere._ 'Got you.' Sasuke requips his sword and blocks the attack with the flat of his blade. As the wind attack grinds against his sword and kicks up sparks, Sasuke sees that Naruto has a cocky grin on his face and wonders why. He then gets his answer as 'Naruto' once again dispels, revealing that it was a clone the whole time. Sasuke's eyes widen as he realizes the trick and is knocked off balance by the lack of resistance. The real Naruto charges him from behind.

Sasuke plants his chokuto into the ground and uses it to help him spin and face the charging blond. This works right into Naruto's plan as he gets inside of Sasuke's guard. "_Sonic Rush!"_ Naruto grabs Sasuke around the middle and launches both of them up past the Dragon Slayers and through the ceiling as Makarov is talking to Jose's _Thought Projection_.

"Naruto? What are you doing?" Makarov asks, shocked at the appearance of the blond wind mage.

Naruto holds his head as he gets up while Sasuke stays on the ground coughing up blood and trying to get his breath back. 'Not my best idea, but it worked.' Naruto glances at Makarov and notices a massive man with an elongated face and tan skin that was wearing a blindfold, an open green cloak and matching top hat, a purple and white stole with an orange robe underneath it, loose dark blue pants, simple black shoes, and a red necklace made of crosses with a skull in the middle sneak up on him from behind and raise his hands over Makarov's head. "Gramps behind you!"

Makarov turns around and sees Aria. 'Shit, I never sensed him.'

Aria starts to cry as he activates his magic. "So- so- so- sorrowful." With that Aria activates his magic and starts to steal Makarov's magic.

'Fuck, I need to do this perfect.' Naruto gathers his magic, 'Sorry Gramps, but it's for your own good.' "_Gale Palm!" _Naruto's attack hits Makarov before all of his magic is taken, but unfortunately sends him into the hole that he had made on his way in. 'Oops.' The blond thinks as he watches Makarov fall through the hole.

Makarov crashes into the floor with a loud thud. His skin had turned slightly green and he felt weak. 'What the hell. I can barely feel my power. What did he do to my magic?' Makarov thinks as he weakly struggles to his feet.

Meanwhile around him the mages had stopped to see what had happened. "Hey, something fell down." One of the mages noticed.

When the smoke clears the Fairy Tail mages were shocked to see the form of Master Makarov in the crater. "Master!" Erza is the first to act and races to his side. She stops as he weakly stands up.

"I'm fine." He weakly protests as he staggers on his feet.

The rest of the members gather around Makarov. "Gramps, what happened upstairs?" Gray questions.

Makarov looks up to the hole he had fallen through. "I was fooled." 'Naruto be careful.'

**Upstairs**

Aria starts to cry even harder. "It's too sorrowful. This comes from you stopping my magic before it could be completed." The tall mage turns towards Naruto. "Now it is even more sorrowful that you will die here."

Naruto jumps to his feet and puts his back towards the hole in the floor. "I'm not going to die today, especially from an overemotional bitch like you." Naruto then notices that Lucy is tied up at the feet of a tall man with long, straight, black hair, a thin moustache, dark lips, prominent eyebrows, and a long face that was wearing a purple coat with jagged edges and mantle with bat-like wings, a matching witch-like hat with the Phantom Lord symbol, his Wizard Saint medallion around his neck and over a plain shirt, loose, striped jester pants, and pointy shoes with a fuzzy ball on the front and back. Next to Lucy's head was a knife. "What are you doing to Lucy, bastard." He demands.

"We've captured Lucy Heartfilia-sama as per her father's request." Jose said with a laugh.

"Where are you?" Naruto demands as he holds back his anger.

"What does it matter to you? Would you get between a father trying to find his runaway daughter?" Jose can see something that Naruto can't and decides to stall for time.

"I don't give a fuck about her dad or a man who looks like a the love-child of a witch and a clown. Lucy's my friend and fellow guild member and when I find you I'll kick your ass, datteb- AHHHHHHH!" Naruto's speech was stopped when thousands of volts of electricity surged through his body, knocking him out and causing him to fall down the hole.

Unseen by Naruto Sasuke had crawled over to him and grabbed his ankle right above his sandal. "I win this time, dobe. _Electric Current." _Sasuke channels his lightning through his body so that it would shock Naruto in the process.

"Well done, Sasuke-san." Jose praised the most recent member of the Element 5.

"Shut the hell up. I think that bastard dislocated my ribcage when he used me as a battering ram and I'm trying to pop it back into place." Sasuke says as he grunts with the effort of talking.

"As sour as ever I see." Jose deadpans at the mages disrespectful words. "No matter, with Makarov's magic drained they are no match for us now and we have the Heartfilia girl. All that's left is to crush their guild." Jose cackle as the silhouettes of the other members of the Element 5 are seen behind him.

**Bottom Floor**

"Makarov you can barely stand. Don't strain yourself." Erza protests as the Fairy Tail master tries to continue fighting.

"I can't stop. Jose isn't here, we were tricked." Makarov gets out as his vision blurs. "We have to retreat, this was a trap." Makarov's words shock the mages, but he continues before they can say anything. "Jose has L- guwah!" Makarov's words are cut off as Naruto falls on top of him and knocks him out while his muscles were still having spasms and sparks appearing randomly on him.

The mages stare with open mouths at what had just happened. As Naruto slowly regains consciousness. "Ugh, my everything. I feel like Laxus just used me for target practice." Naruto rolls off of Makarov with another groan. He then notices what he had landed on. "Gramps! Are you alright?" The blond pointlessly asks the unconscious master.

Erza quickly takes control. "You all heard Master we have to retreat."

The guild members quickly protest and insist that they keep fighting. Until Naruto gets back up on his feet. "Neechan is right. Fighting here is pointless."

"Naruto how can you say that? They hurt Gramps. We can't let them get away with that." Gray demands in anger.

"It's wouldn't matter if we did win here." Naruto's words shut everyone up. "The only people here that matter are the ace, Gajeel, and two members of the Element 5, Sasuke of the Storms and Aria of the Sky. We can't beat them and keep the master safe at the same time." Naruto twitches as another lightning surges through him. "We are too injured to keep fighting, besides are you going to disobey Gramps?"

The other mages look away, ashamed that they were thinking of ignoring Makarov's order. Elfman scoops up Makarov as the others support the injured. Together the Fairy Tail mages start to retreat. Much to the amusement of the Phantom mages, who had regained their fighting spirit after seeing that their master was defeated, and charged after them.

As they were retreating Naruto grabs Natsu's shoulder he pulls him in close and whispers into his ear. "Natsu, Jose has Lucy at Phantom's headquarters. Go save her and meet up with us at the guild. Do whatever it takes." Natsu is shocked at this development, but nods and heads for the door. He only stops to get Happy and grab an unfortunate Phantom member for interrogation.

Naruto smiles as he watches Natsu leave, confident that he would bring Lucy back. He then looks down at his hand and frowns at the scrap of paper that was tucked into his sandal. On it was only one word scribbled down in a hurry. 'HEADQUARTERS' Natsu crushed the paper in his hand and shreds it with his _Wind Magic_. He looks back over his shoulder at the hole in the ceiling and shakes his head before running after the rest of the Fairy Tail mages.

**A/N: Wow that went longer than I expected. Now before anyone complains about Sasuke let me say this: Sasuke's personality will be different than in canon because the Uchiha Massacre never happened. So he has a different upbringing which keeps him from becoming the power hungry backstabber he is now. Also that was my first attempt at a fight scene so if it sucks tell me. Next chapter will have most of the action and I will have a longer Naruto vs. Sasuke fight. Most of the Sasuke bits were unplanned and I just came up with them while I was writing this chapter so there were more changes than I originally thought and more of him overall. Alright thanks for reading.**


	6. Chapter 6: Round Two

**Hidden Guild: Silent Leaf**

**Chapter 6: Round Two**

**Disclaimer: I own neither Fairy Tail nor Naruto they belong to Mashima Hiro and Kishimoto Masashi respectively**

**A/N: Getting to the fight scenes this chapter. To clarify something about this story; The Hidden Guilds worked together to take care of Fiore as a whole, but specialized in different areas of Fiore. All but Silent Leaf were destroyed several years ago. Just because they survived doesn't mean that they came out unscathed, multiple members were killed and a lot of information and buildings were burned or destroyed during the attack. This means that the guild has to rebuild and recollect most of their information and buildings, and have to collect information on the areas that were covered by the other guilds, and have to find a way to cover the entirety of Fiore by themselves. Members of the other guilds survived, but not many. Which is why it has taken so long to get ready for their return and that they haven't done anything significant in years. They will play a bigger part later in the story, now I'm focusing on Naruto and the other members of the Konoha 12's mission, but mainly Naruto.**

"Talking"

'Thinking'

**"Demon Talking"**

_'Flashback'_

_Magic/Magic Item_

**Location/Time Change**

**Fairy Tail Basement**

Throughout the guild various members are lying around in bandages or getting patched up by the members that weren't seriously injured. The entire guild was upset that they had to retreat from the battle and were already planning a counter attack.

Macao stood over a map wearing an eye patch as he pointed to various locations as other members looked on. "This is their headquarters." He outlines his plan as he moves his hand over the map. "If we use ranged magic to attack from the southwest…"

"Don't bother." Naruto says as he walks over.

"Naruto? Don't you want revenge for what they did?" Macao questions in a disapproving tone.

"Let me answer your question with another question. If we were attacked in our own guild by Phantom and beat them back, but they managed to steal something important to us, what would you do?" Naruto asks with a raised eyebrow.

Macao uncertainly answers the strange question. "We would attack them… while we had the upper… hand…" He slowly trails off at the implication at Naruto's words. "Shit! We were so focused on attacking them that we didn't consider that they would retaliate." Macao quickly left to organize the guild's defenses. Naruto nodded in satisfaction and left to join Gray, Elfman, Happy, and Natsu standing around after listening to Lucy's story.

Lucy sat on a barrel while watching the guild scramble to set up defenses. The more she watched the worse she started to feel. Gray notices and walks over to her. "What's the matter? Still worried?" He asks.

"No, it's not that." Lucy says in a subdued tone as her eyes water. "It's just… I'm sorry."

Elfman crosses his arms, "It's the fate of rich heiresses to be targeted. And it's a man's job to protect them." he attempts to comfort her in his own… unique way.

"Don't say things like that." Gray reprimands.

"I'm really surprised. Why did you try to hide it, Lucy?" Happy questions.

"I wasn't trying to hide anything." Lucy says while keeping her head down. "I ran away from home and didn't really want to talk about it. He didn't care about his runaway daughter for a year. And now he wants me back? He went to such terrible lengths to bring me back... He's the worst." Lucy states with conviction. "But it's my fault isn't it? If I hadn't ran away from home none of this would have happened, right?" Lucy asks.

Naruto crouches down so that he can look Lucy in the eyes. "Hey, it's not your fault. Phantom would have attacked us eventually. Your dad just sped up the process. It's never wrong to try and standup for yourself and make your own place in the world." Naruto says with a smile. "As long as you believe that what you are doing is right, it doesn't matter what happens."

"But everything will go back to normal if I leave, won't it?" Lucy asks with a desperate look on her face.

"I don't know about that." Natsu says with his toothy grin. "You being called a 'rich heiress' doesn't really suit you, does it?" Lucy looks at Natsu in surprise as he continues, "You fit in better laughing in this dirty old bar and going on fun adventures." Lucy considers Natsu's words. "You said that you wanted to stay here. What's the point of going back to a place that you hate?" Lucy looks up sharply at Natsu, "You're Lucy of Fairy Tail and this is your home." Natsu declares as he points his thumb at himself.

Lucy's eyes start to water at Natsu's words before she begins to cry. Gray awkwardly rubs his head at her tears, "Don't cry. You're stronger than that."

"He's right. Men are weak to tears." Elfman declares while crying himself.

Cana sits in front of a board where she had laid out her cards. After she flips a card and stares at them in concentration the card mage throws them into the air. Naruto wanders over carrying a bottle of booze, "Nothing?"

"It's no good. I can't find Mystogan." She says as she unconsciously takes the offered bottle before taking a swig. "If they're targeting Lucy they'll probably attack again and soon, like you said. We also have a lot of injured people… It doesn't look good."

The blond snorts at her pessimism. "Come on, we're Fairy Tail. We can take anything Phantom throws at us." Naruto tries to raise her morale, but was internally agreeing with Cana. "Mira any luck with the lacrima?" He asks as he stands next to her. He catches sight of who she was calling and immediately gains a scowl. "Oh, it's _you_." The distaste was obvious in his words.

Mira elbows Naruto and turns back to the lacrima. "Master is okay, but still isn't at full strength. We can't find Mystogan anywhere. You're our only hope, Laxus." She pleads with a bowed head. On the lacrima was a man in his twenties with spiky, blond hair, a lightning bolt-shaped scar over his right eye, a pair of magical headphones over his ears with spikes on the ends, and a superior look on his face.

"Huh?" He asks with a sneer on his face.

"Please come back. Fairy Tail is in a crisis." Mira begs the S-ranked mage.

"Serves that shitty geezer right." He declares with a laugh. "It doesn't concern me. Handle it yourself."

"So you're too much of a pussy to fight Phantom, eh sparkplug." Naruto taunts with a scowl on his face. "I thought that you said that you were 'The Strongest Mage in Fairy Tail.', but it turns out that you are just a spineless bastard who couldn't take out a fly." The blond mages stare at each other with murder in their eyes.

"Who the fuck do you think you are?" Laxus demands with a growl. "I could crush you like a gnat and you have the balls to call me a coward. Who the hell gave you the right?"

"The fact that I'm fighting gave me the right you sorry excuse for a generator." The blonds had pressed their faces against the lacrimas and were going nose to nose, figuratively, as they unknowingly release their magic. "If you want the right to call yourself a member period then get your ass back here and fight you pompous piece of sh-."

"Enough!" The pair turn to see the diminutive form of Makarov standing with bandages on his head and using a new staff to support himself while still standing tall. "Laxus will you help your fellow guild members or not?"

"Are you going to retire and let me take over as master?" He counters, "You started this when you beat the shit out of him before, why should I clean up your mess?"

"How dare you talk like that to the master?!" Cana demands the older mage.

Laxus just laughs at her, "Is that how you talk to someone you're trying to get to help you? Maybe if yo-" The rest of his words were cut off as Mira shatters the lacrima.

"Oi, Mira! I just bought that." Naruto says in outrage until he sees that she is crying. "Mira-chan, what's wrong?"

"I can't believe him." She says through her tears, "How can he be a part of Fairy Tail?"

Makarov gives a heavy sigh at her words, 'He wasn't always like this. But he is right about Jose's reasons.' he thinks to himself as he walks away to reflect on his grandson's actions and come up with a way to stop Jose and protect his 'brats'.

"In that case, I'll fight too." Mira declares as she walks away from the broken lacrima.

"You can't." Cana reminds her.

"Lucy was captured even though I was there. This time I'll…" Mira is stopped by Cana's hand on her arm.

"No, you'll just get in everyone's way the way you are now."

"Cana's right and you know it, Mira." Naruto says as he looks at the crying mage. "Even if you were an S-rank mage, you aren't anymore. We all have to do what's best even if it is nothing more than standing aside." He gently tells the white haired beauty. Mira still wants to help, but knows that her friends are right.

Suddenly the guild starts to shake. The mages all stand up and look around. "What's that?" Gray asks the question on everyone's mind.

Alzack runs in from outside and stands at the stairs. "Everyone outside!" He demands before rushing back out himself.

**Outside the Guild**

The Fairy Tail mages assemble outside and are shocked by what they see. Natsu was one of the last to arrive and voices what they all were thinking, "What the hell is that?" Phantom Lord's guild had grown six legs and was walking towards the guild through the lake. As the guild got closer the mages eyes bulged and their jaws went slack.

Erza was the last to arrive and was only wearing a towel. "I never imagined… This is how they plan to attack us?"

Makarov stood at the front and was stunned by the appearance of the guild. 'Jose, how far are you willing to take this?' He wonders as the guild stops moving. A wall retracts to reveal a large cannon that extends out of the guild. Makarov's eyes widen as he recognizes the spell while it is charging. "It's the _Magical Convergence Canon-Jupiter. _Everyone take cover!" Makarov shouts as he waves them back. He then clenches his hands into fists and crosses his arms. "_Maximum Defense Shield: Three Pillar Gods!" _Three pillars made of dark seals appear around Makarov. "You won't harm my brats!"

Erza requips to her Adamantine Armor and goes to help the master, "Master, wait! You aren't back at full strength!" She is stopped by Naruto before she can reach him. "Naruto, what are you doing?"

"The only way to stop that beam is to get in front of Gramps." Naruto says through gritted teeth as he struggles to hold her back. "If you do that you might not survive and he'll have used his magic for nothing."

"But he doesn't have all of his magic back." She protests. "He could die if he takes the hit."

"He already cast the spell." Naruto barks back, "It's too late to stop him anyways." he finishes in a softer tone. Erza looks at Naruto then back to the master and knows that he is right.

Behind them Natsu struggles against Gray, "Gramps, don't!"

"Natsu, it's no use. You just have to believe in him." Gray tells the struggling mage.

The cannon fires its energy beam at the guild as the mages brace for impact. The beam crashes into Makarov's shield as the two spells fight for dominance. Eventually _Jupiter's_ beam dissipates and Makarov's shield stands. The guild members are ecstatic at the outcome. "Whoa… He managed to stop the entire thing while injured." Macao says in awe.

"Master Makarov saved us again. He sure is a man." Elfman agrees.

"But…" Cana says at the sight of Makarov collapsing.

The guild members rush forward to check on their fallen master. "Gramps, hang in there." Natsu says as he reaches him first. As the mages check on his injured form they see that he had used all of the magic he had recovered.

Jose's voice is projected to the mages through a magical loudspeaker so that all of the mages can hear him. "We have beaten Makarov twice now. You have no chance of winning without him. Hand over Lucy Heartfilia. Right now." Jose demands with a menacing tone.

The mages are quick to deny Jose's request, "Not on your life!" Alzack declares.

"What kind of guild would we be if we gave up on our friend?" Bisca replies.

"Lucy is one of us!" Macao states. Soon the other members join in with declarations that they wouldn't give Lucy up. This makes the girl in question feel even more guilt at what was happening because of her.

"Hand her over." Jose repeats his demand.

"We'd rather die than sell out our friend!" Erza passionately declares, now back to her normal armor. The guild members scream in agreement with her words and it brings tears to Lucy's eyes.

"Our answer won't change no matter what! We'll kick your ass!" Natsu yells at Jose and is joined by the entire guild.

Naruto silently walks up behind the crying celestial mage and places a hand on her head. She flinches at the sudden contact and then turns to look at him. "See? No one is blaming you for this. You're our friend and comrade, so an attack on you is an attack on us. So why are you crying?" He gently asks.

Before Lucy can respond Jose starts to talk again. "I see." He says in a deadly calm voice. "Then we'll fire a bigger and stronger _Jupiter_ beam! Now tremble in fear for the fifteen minutes it takes to charge!" Jose threatens with a crazy tinge to his voice.

The mages are taken aback at his words, "They'll fire _Jupiter _again?" Loke says in fear.

The sound of laughter is heard from the back of the crowd. They all turn to see that Naruto is holding his stomach due to laughing so hard. "Naruto! They're going to fire it again. How can you be laughing? Master can't block it again and we don't know if Erza could stop it." Gray demands.

Naruto stops laughing and straightens up. "It's simple, Jose gave us all that we need to beat his precious cannon." He declares, "Weren't you listening? He said that it takes fifteen minutes to charge before he can fire again. All we have to do is destroy Jupiter in those fifteen minutes."

"How are we supposed to do that?" Natsu questions.

"All we have to do is destroy it from the inside. We are the number one most destructive guild in Fiore." He reminds the assembled mages. "It will be easy."

When Naruto finished talking hundreds of shadowy, purple figures came out of the guild wearing ragged cloaks and floating. "Why are their soldiers coming out?" One of the mages questions, "I thought they were going to fire _Jupiter_."

"You have two choices, Fairy Tail. Be torn apart by my soldiers, or be blown to pieces by _Jupiter._" Jose declares.

"I don't believe this. Does he plan to blow up his own men?" Macao asks.

"It's just a bluff. They won't shoot." Wakaba says with false confidence.

"No, they'll still shoot." Cana says, destroying the older mages' false hope. "That's Jose's magic, _Shade_. They aren't human, just ghosts that Jose created."

"All we have to do is destroy that cannon, right?" Natsu asks and gets a nod from Naruto. "Then I'm going to take care of it." He declares before running and calling for Happy. Happy grabs Natsu and starts to fly towards the guild.

"Don't bother with the actual cannon. Just destroy the power source." Naruto calls out as they are flying away. He sees that they heard when the pair disappear into the barrel. "Yosh. Now it's time to show Jose that he isn't the only one who can make an army." With that Naruto creates hundreds of clones to help fight the shades.

Gray starts to run at the water followed by Naruto, Elfman, and Erza. "Guys, come on. We're going to help too." He says as they charge the guild. "_Ice Make: Floor!"_ Gray creates a path of ice that his fellow members use to approach Phantom's guild.

Mira grabs Lucy's hand, "Lucy, this way." She leads her over to Reedus and a Naruto clone that is carrying Makarov. "We have a safe house hidden away. Go there and wait until the battle is over." Mira tells her.

Lucy yanks her arm out of Mira's hand, "I have to help everyone fight." She declares, "It's my fault that this is happening."

"I told you earlier Lucy that no one believes that." The Naruto clone says. "Everyone is fighting for the defeated, the guild, and to protect you. So just go along with this okay."

Lucy looks down, lost in thought about his words and doesn't see Mira's hand held in front of her face until she activates her _Sleep Magic_. Lucy quickly falls asleep and is caught by Mira. "Reedus, take Lucy and Makarov to the safe house." Mira tells the pict mage.

"Oui." Reedus quickly draws a wagon that is attached to a large purple boar On his stomach and brings it to life with his magic. He puts Lucy in the back with Naruto's clone and Makarov before flicking the reins and heading off.

"Mira." Another clone gains her attention. "When you transform into Lucy make sure to change your clothes and take this." The clone holds up a golden key before putting it in her hand.

"One of Lucy's keys?" Mira says in shock. "But I thought that she lost them."

"She did. That's just a copy of the one we got from Galuna Island. Boss was going to give it to her after Gramps punished them, but forgot about it because of Phantom." The clone explained. "He still has the original and that one will disappear if I get hit. I'll stay close to you and all you have to do is hold the key."

Mira tightens her grip on the key. 'I might not be able to fight anymore.' She looks up with a determined look on her face as she starts to use her magic, 'But I will protect my friends no matter what' With these thoughts Mira turns herself into an exact copy of Lucy. 'We have fourteen minutes until _Jupiter _fires.' Mira thinks as she returns to the fighting. 'Natsu hurry.'

The mages are all engaged with Jose's shades_._ One of the shades runs through a Naruto clone and forces it to dispel. "Everyone, don't let them touch you." A different clone calls out. "They drain your magic on contact."

Alzack and Bisca continue to shoot the shades before they can get too close. Loke uses his _Ring Magic_ to defeat them before he can be touched. After the shades dissipate the mages regroup. "As long as we keep this up we can win." Macao says with confidence. They mages quickly lose their newfound confidence as they see the shades that were defeated reform. "What the hell?"

A Naruto clone drops in by the mages. "We can't beat them with just our _Wind Magic_. The only ones that have stayed down are the ones that have been hit by _Light Magic_." It explains in a rush. "We need to stick exclusively to either blowing them backwards or hitting them with _Light Magic._"

"Damn, we don't have a lot of light mages." Cana mutters. "We'll have to focus on holding them back."

"Alright, but hurry. We can't reform when they hit us and making replacements divides our magic." The clone urges before jumping back into the fighting.

Suddenly a huge column of flames burst out of the cannon. The mages watched as the barrel fell off of the guild and crashed to the ground. They then gave off a loud cheer at the sight. "Natsu did it." Macao claimed at the sight.

"Without the _Jupiter Cannon_ we can beat them." Lavi, the bespectacled, purple haired mage, declared.

"We can do this. Now let's push them back!" Cana says, rallying the mages. They then start to fight back with a new ferocity.

Suddenly the guild starts to move again. Only this time instead of walking it starts to transform. The mages watch in horror as the guild finishes its transformation. A clone tilts its head all the way back and drops its jaw at what it sees. "Oh, you have got to be shitting me." Next to him Loke and Cana also watch with open jaws.

"It's a giant. A magical giant. Their guild transformed into a magical giant." Loke states in disbelief. He was right as the guild was now standing on two legs and looked like a giant samurai with a spiked helmet and armor. The giant starts to walk towards the guild and its members, causing them to panic.

"Focus on the enemies in front of you." Cana calls out as she throws more of her cards. "I'm sure that Natsu can take that down from the inside."

"But isn't that a form of transportation?" One of the clones asks. The Fairy Tail members realize that he is right and hang their heads in despair, losing all confidence in Natsu saving them.

**Inside the Cannon**

Natsu was lying on the ground due to his motion sickness as Happy tries to revive him. A man with black and white hair in a topknot and a tattoo of a black line that ran across the bridge of his nose and his face wearing an orange gi-like shirt with fishnet underneath it, black pants tucked into black boots, and a katana on his left hip stood over Natsu, he is Totomaru of the Element 5. "You get motion sick?" he rhetorically asks before laughing. "You can't eat fire like that. So I'll destroy you with my strongest magic!" Totomaru declares before crossing his arms with his first two finger held out. "I'll burn you to a crisp, Dragon Slayer! Eh!" Totomaru stops as he sees that he has ice covering his hands and that it was starting to cover his body. "What the hell is this?" Sadly he never gets an answer as Elfman picks him up and throws him out of the guild.

Natsu gets up with a smile. "You guys…"

"You're too cool!" Happy declares with a smile. "Gray, Elfman, Naruto, Erza!" The four mentioned mages stood in the destroyed remains of the _Jupiter Cannon_.

"Man, Natsu, you're so pathetic." Gray drawls with his hands in his pockets.

"If you're a man you shouldn't get sick on vehicles, you should make the vehicle sick." Elfman declares.

"Do you even know or hear half of what you say?" Naruto questions as he kicks part of the lacrima.

Erza looked around at the demolished lacrima and building. "So this is all that's left of _Jupiter_? Good job, Natsu."

The building stops moving, much to Natsu's delight. "It stopped!" He uselessly points out as he leaps to his feet.

"I'll go out and see what's happening." Happy volunteers before flying out of the building.

**In Front of the Guild**

The giant was drawing a large magical seal in front of it. The mages look on before recognizing the seal. "That's the seal for _Abyss Break!"_ Mira says in shock from her hiding place in an abandoned building.

"With a seal that size everything up to the cathedral will be destroyed by the darkness wave!" Loke says with a worried tone.

Happy sweats nervously at the newest card Phantom had played before flying back to inform the others.

**Back Inside the Remains of the Cannon**

Happy flies back inside to deliver the news, "The guild has turned into a giant and is casting the forbidden spell, _Abyss Break!"_ Happy says in a panic.

"No way. I don't believe it." Natsu shouts.

"We don't have time to argue. They said that it will take out everything up to the Kardia Cathedral." Happy informs them.

"That's half the town." Gray says in shock.

"Enough. We have to split up and destroy the giant's power source." Erza takes control and gives them their orders. "_Abyss Break_ is powered by the four main element magics. So it should correspond to the members of the Element 5. If we can beat all of them then we should be able to stop it from being cast. Natsu who did we just beat?"

"The fire guy."

"Then we need to beat Sol, Juvia, and Aria." Erza says.

"We also have to take out Sasuke and Gajeel." Naruto points out. "I have a score to settle with that electric bastard."

"And I have one to settle with the scrap-iron bastard." Natsu puts in.

"Fine. Natsu you search for Gajeel, Naruto you fight Sasuke, Gray take on Juvia the water mage, Elfman you get Sol the earth mage, and that leaves Aria the wind mage to me. We have to beat them in ten minutes or the _Abyss Break _will fire and destroy Magnolia. Any questions?" When she doesn't get any Erza gives a nod. "Then let's go."

"Man, talk about out of the frying pan and into the fire." Elfman remarks after he hears the plan.

"Doesn't matter, we're going to kick Phantom's ass." Natsu declares with conviction.

Naruto puts out a hand, "For the guild."

Gray puts his in as well, "For Team Shadow Gear."

Elfman puts his in next, "For Master."

Natsu puts his fist in, "For Lucy."

Erza looks at them all before putting her hand in, "For Fairy Tail."

"YOSH!" They all scream together before rushing out to find their designated opponents.

**With the Defenders**

Cana stands with her back to the abandoned building. "Mira, how long do we have until that spell activates?" She questions the still disguised mage.

"We have around ten minutes, I think." Mira answers. "We've got to find a way to destroy its power source."

"Our guys inside are probably thinking the same thing." Cana mutters.

"There's more than just Natsu? Who?" Mira asks in surprise.

"Naruto, Gray, Erza, and Elfman."

"Elfman. Why?" Mira asks in fear.

"Why? Because he wanted to fight to." Cana says in confusion.

"It's no use. Elfman can't fight. You know that, Cana." Mira says in a panic.

The clone puts his hand on her shoulder. "He can fight, Mira. He did it before and he can do it again." It reassures her.

"That was against grunts. If Elfman were to go against the big guns as he is now…"

"It doesn't matter." The clone cuts in. "What happened in the past messed you both up, I know that. But you can't keep letting it hold you back. Elfman is trying to move forward in his own way." It gently explains.

Mira leans back against the wall as her memories hit her. 'Elfman, if you're moving forward then I will too.' Mira gains a determined expression and strides out of the building.

"Oi, are you crazy." The clone says as it grabs her arm. "You can't go out there."

"I can't keep hiding behind everyone else. I have to move forward." Mira declares.

"That's a great idea." The clone admits, "But we're in the middle of a war. Now is _not_ the time to do this." He then disappears in a puff of smoke.

Mira puts her hand back down at her side after sucker punching Naruto's clone. "I have to do this." She walks out so that everyone can see her and spreads her arms wide. "I'm the one you're after, aren't I?" She calls out to Jose. "Here I am, so stop attacking the guild this instant." 'That should buy us some time.'

"Begone, imposter." Jose replies, surprising Mira. "I knew from the start that Lucy wasn't there. There is no way that you would put the target out in plain sight."

Mira deactivates her magic at his words. 'I truly am useless.' She thinks with tears in her eyes.

Cana walks up behind her and puts a comforting arm around the crying white haired mage. "It will be okay." She comforts her, "Elfman can fight too. Because he is a Fairy Tail mage."

The giant's hand then reaches down and grabs Mira. "I detest girls that try to deceive me." Jose says over the loudspeaker. "I think that I will just crush you like a grape."

"Mira!" Cana calls out while being held back by a clone.

"It's no good. We can't reach her from here." It tells the struggling mage.

'Everyone, you have to hurry up and destroy that giant.' Cana thinks as she realizes the futility of reaching Mira.

While they are watching they see Elfman get thrown through part of the building and Mira lifted up next to him. The mages watch in suspense as he performs a _Full Body Takeover: Beast Soul_, which he hadn't done since he had lost control and killed his younger sister, Lisanna, years ago. 'Come on, Elfman, you can do this.' Cana silently encourages. The entire guild breathes a sigh of relief when they see that he had beaten Sol and rescued Mira.

**With Naruto**

Naruto rubs his head from the feedback of memories he had gotten. 'Good. Elfman beat Sol and Gray is fighting Juvia. All that's left is for Neechan to beat Aria and _Abyss Break _will stop. Then we can focus on Jose.' Naruto stops running when he reaches the middle of the guild. "I know that you're out there, Sasuke. You can stop hiding." He calls out to the empty room. "You've already pulled this trick once."

Opposite from Naruto black and red flames sprung up and slowly faded away to reveal Sasuke. He had already activated his eye magic and stared at Naruto as he made them spin. "Dobe."

"Save the scare tactics, teme. I've seen them all before."

Sasuke grunts, but stops spinning his eyes. "Are we starting where we left off when I fried your ass or do you want a do-over?"

"We both know that that was just a friendly hello. You only used _Lightning Magic_."

"I had to stay undercover you idiot." Sasuke growls out. "But now I don't."

"I noticed. What's changed?"

"No witnesses."

The pair look at each other with wicked grins as Naruto's eyes turn red also. "You've got a point, teme. **Now it's time**."

"We will finally see…"

The pair charge each other and their fists collide, creating a shockwave that scatters rocks and papers around the room. "That **I'm** the **strongest**!" They declare as their fists hit. Before launching into another high speed hand-to-hand contest.

Sasuke lands the first solid hit as he slips inside Naruto's guard and hits him with a fist to the gut followed by a punch to the face that sends him sliding back. Naruto quickly recovers and fires a _Wind Bullet_ at Sasuke that he dodges. It soon proves to be a distraction as Naruto summons ten clones to help him fight. The clones rush Sasuke as he recovers and plan to attack him all at once. They are foiled as he activates his _Lightning Armor_, causing them to dispel when they try to hit him. However that was another distraction as Naruto slides in under the cover of the smoke to land a rising wind covered kick to Sasuke's chin.

As the Phantom mage rises he flips so that he is facing Naruto and smirks when he sees him coming up after him. He holds his hand out as a ball of black and red flames appears in his hand. Naruto's eyes widen in panic when he sees that he had walked into a trap. Sasuke's next words confirm, "_Hellfire Ball!"_ Naruto raises his hands to brace himself and conjures wind to provide a weak defense.

When the fireball hits the makeshift shield the combination of outwards blowing wind and the intense flames combine to create an explosion that sends Sasuke farther up and Naruto crashing down. Sasuke creates metal spikes on his feet and sticks to the ceiling, "Is that better, dobe? I'm not using just lightning anymore." Sasuke taunts from his position on the ceiling before his eyes widen and he drops to the floor. Where he was previously standing several of Naruto's _Air Discs _slice through the ceiling and out of the guild.

The wind mage then dispelled the smoke to reveal that his clothes were torn and burnt, but he was fine. **"Much. Now I can really cut loose." **Naruto replies as his whisker marks get thicker and darken. Sasuke smirks as flames engulf his arms before he rushes forward. Naruto knows that if he tries to match his punch with his wind another explosion will occur so instead he sticks to dodging. As Sasuke continues his attack, Naruto is slowly backed into a corner. He then gets a brilliant idea.

When he reaches the wall instead of looking for an exit, he does a backflip to avoid one of Sasuke's punches and plants his feet on the wall. He then pushes himself forward and flips again so that he goes over Sasuke's head and lands behind him with a twist so that he is facing Sasuke's back. Naruto then brings both of his hands back and pushes forwards for a double palm thrust and activates his _Sonic Rush_. **"****_Twin Sonic Gale Palms!" _**The force from the attack sends Sasuke through the wall and into the other room.

Naruto walks up to the hole he had just created to surveys the damage. Instead of Sasuke getting up to attack like he had been expecting, he sees the giant, open jaws of a dragon that was made out of black and red fire. As he screams in surprise and pain he could hear Sasuke shouting his attack, "_Grand Hellfire Dragon!_" When the flames died down Sasuke walks back into the room and looks around. He found a distinct lack of yellow and orange in the room. 'Where is he? I know that last attack hit him. He shouldn't be able to move.' Sasuke scans the room and came to a conclusion. 'If he isn't here then he has to… be… Fuck.' He then sinks into the ground as Naruto drops from the ceiling, covered in a red energy, and punches the ground where he had previously been standing, cracking it.

**"Tch. I missed." **The blond says in disappointment. He then looks over as Sasuke rises from the ground. **"That was Sol's magic, wasn't it?"** He asks.

"Yes." Was the short reply. "I managed to copy all of the magic of the top mages in Phantom Lord."

"Shocking." Naruto deadpanned, making Sasuke twitch at the pun. "I really should have expected that from you and your damn _Mirror Eyes_."

"Jealous?"

**"Have you gotten to the point where you can copy ****_Lost Magic_**** like Itachi?"** The black haired man grew a tic mark at that and growled at him for asking something he obviously knew if his smile was anything to go by. **"I'll take that as a no."**

Sasuke requips his chokuto and charges Naruto. As he reaches him the blond drops his red energy and requips a combat knife to catch the chokuto, surprising Sasuke. "You actually learned a new magic?" He drawls out as they try to push each other back, "I'm surprised your brain didn't explode at the attempt."

"When your sibling is a mage famous for her _Requip Magic_ you tend to pick up a few things." The blond replies through gritted teeth. He then drops to the floor and allows Sasuke to fall forward.

Unfortunately the move, while throwing Sasuke off balance, exposes Naruto and Sasuke takes full advantage of the fact. He quickly puffs up his cheeks and spits several small fireballs at Naruto. "_Hellfire Bullets."_

Naruto rolls out of the way, but his bandanna catches fire. Sasuke deadpans at the sight of the blond uselessly trying to grab the flames to put them out. He then lazily raises a hand and sends a blast of water to put out the flames, soaking Naruto in the process. "You never change, Naruto." He notices.

**"Fuck you, Sasuke." **The blond grumbles. **"What the hell was that for?"**

Sasuke sends starts to make lightning dance across his sword before he holds it over the puddle of water leading to Naruto. "This." He then sinks the sword into the water and electrocutes Naruto, again.

**"Ahhhhh!" **Naruto screams in pain as lightning dances across his body. **"Did you seriously just electrocute me again?" **He asks in disbelief, once it stops.

Sasuke shrugs his shoulders, "I couldn't help it. Your moves were predictable." Sasuke then raises an eyebrow when Naruto freezes up at his words.

"What did you say?" Naruto asked in his normal voice and in a whisper that Sasuke could barely hear. He had his head bowed so that his hair covered his eyes.

"I don't see the big deal. All I said was that your moves were… predictable… Shit." Sasuke trails off as he realized how big of a mistake he had just made. Naruto took pride in being unpredictable and he had just told him that he had become predictable. 'This is gonna hurt.' Sasuke thinks as he watches Naruto warily.

Naruto's head snaps up and he rockets forward to punch Sasuke with a fist covered in red energy. He breaks through his guard and lands a straight punch that sends him into the wall. He then grabs by the collar, knees him in the gut making him cough up blood, and throws him up to the ceiling. 'He's not taking that well.' Sasuke notices as he is hurled towards the ceiling. When he turns in midair to try and use his arms to push off the ceiling, Naruto is already above him. Sasuke activates his _Lightning Armor_ again as Naruto lands a spinning axe kick and sends him through the floor.

**Erza vs. Aria**

Erza was charging Aria as he placed his hands with open palms in front of him with one upside down and under the other which was held normally. "I wonder if you can survive my _Airspace Magic._" Aria calls out as he launches invisible attacks at Erza. Erza doesn't stop as she rushes forward with twin swords drawn. She then begins to slice through the winds and get closer to Aria who stood there in shock. "Impossible! She's cutting through my airspace."

When Erza gets within striking range she starts to requip. "_Heaven's Wheel: Blumenblatt!" _With a cry she slashes Aria and is then followed by several more swords, leaving him to fall to the floor, bloody and beaten. Natsu and Happy look on slack-jawed at how easily Erza had defeated Aria when he had been toying with Natsu. She looks down at Aria's immobile form in distaste. "Master could never be defeated by the likes of you. That part of your actions will never be told again." Erza coldly says as she requips back to her normal armor.

**Outside**

"Should we block it?" One of the mages asks as the _Abyss Break_ seal is almost finished.

"That's not something we can block." Another replies as the mages look on in fear.

Suddenly the giant magical seal disappears. The mages look on in disbelief, the giant just stopped drawing the seal and let it disappear. It now stood above them motionless. "The mages start to cheer. "It's stopped! They did it!" The mages cry in relief.

**Loke Partway to the Safe House**

Loke stops and sighs in relief at the seal's disappearance. "The Element 5 were defeated. I knew they could do it." A clone lands behind Loke and grabs his shoulder. He turns and looks at the clone in surprise. "Naruto? What's wrong?"

"Thank Kami I found you. It's Gajeel! He found the safe house and is trying to take Lucy." The clone says. "Reedus is the only one guarding them and he already destroyed the clone that was with them. You have to help them. Porlyuscia is on her way, but she can't fight." The clone explains.

"I've got it." Loke gives a nod and rushes towards the safe house to rescue his guild mates. The clone watches him go before he dispels from a lack of magic.

**Safe House**

Lucy helped Reedus stand as they watched Gajeel, who was standing on the ceiling, and two other Phantom mages that had broken into the safe house and dispelled the Naruto clone. "Are you okay, Reedus?" Lucy asks the older mage.

"Oui…" Reedus says as he dips his paintbrush into some paint on his pallet.

"Quite the stubborn one aren't we?" A dark-skinned bald man who was wearing a light green coat over a red shirt and had a pair of purple glasses that were missing the left lens asks.

"Hey, Fat-ass." A short girl with tan skin, short brown hair, and a small green gem on her forehead who was wearing a purple hat with the Phantom mark on it, a ragged, sleeveless top, red bandages on her forearms, and green cargo pants tucked into black boots called out. "It's time to give up and hand over the girl."

"Our master is waiting for her." The bald one says.

Reedus starts to draw on his stomach as he watches them. "Lucy, hurry up and run." He tells the blond.

"What are you saying? I'll fight too." Lucy declares.

"It's for everyone's sake. Please."

"Oh, you're making me cry." Gajeel sarcastically says.

"How touching." The girl remarks

Reedus finishes his drawing and activates his magic. "_Pict Magic: Roar of Silver!" _With that the giant, white, spotted apes-like creatures that he had drawn sprung to life and attacked.

The bald man snaps his fingers. "Oh, those are Vulcans. I've seen them on Mt. Hakobe." He says, unconcerned about being hurt.

The girl jumps in front of him, "_Mirror Magic: Form Mirror!" _With a wave of her hand she creates six mirrors that the Vulcans disappear in. "These mirrors reflect any attack." She explains. Reedus realizes what she means and is then attacked by his own creations.

Lucy runs away with her eyes closed so that she wouldn't see what was happening to her friend. 'Reedus, I'm sorry.' She is then kicked back by Gajeel.

"Leaving your friend and running away, Princess?" Gajeel mockingly asks. "You Fairy Butts aren't so tough if they'd let you in."

Lucy struggles to her feet and glares at Gajeel. "Why you…" She mutters.

"Want to go?" Gajeel asks.

The bald mage crosses his hands, "_Sound Magic: Howling!"_ Musical notes fly at Reedus and emit a horrible howl making him scream in pain and fall onto his back.

"Reedus!" Lucy says in horror.

"You actually like hanging out with these weaklings, Princess?" Gajeel mocks Reedus's defeat.

"You… Why you… You'll never." Whatever Lucy was going to say was cut off as Gajeel punches her, knocking her out, and picks her up under his arm like a sack before jumping up to the roof.

Loke was just in time to watch Gajeel carry Lucy out of the safe house. He watches Gajeel look around in confusion as he talks to himself. "What's going on? Did they stop the giant?" Gajeel then is forced to dodge as Loke jumps down to the roof and raises a dust cloud. "Now that's what I call a greeting!"

Loke looks at Gajeel with a dark glint to his eyes. "What have you done to Lucy?" He asks with a deadly seriousness. "Give her to me or else," Loke's glasses flash menacingly, "I'll erase you from existence."

Gajeel drops Lucy and gets into his stance. "Perfect, I've been looking for some fun." He says with a wild look in his eyes. "I'll take you on." He turns his arm into a pillar and sends it at Loke, but he only hits an afterimage. Above him Loke readies his rings and launches himself at Gajeel with a scream. They begin to exchange blows, with Loke's glowing fists being matched by Gajeel's iron ones.

Gajeel backs up and studies Loke. 'What's with the strange feeling I'm getting from him?' He wonders as they continue to fight. 'He's more than just a Holder-type mage.' "Who the hell are you?" Gajeel asks as they separate from their last attacks. "You smell weird."

"Don't smell me." Loke responds. "I don't want to be smelled by guys." Suddenly a fierce pain hits Loke, making him grab his chest and his body flicker. 'Not now.' He thinks as he watches Gajeel rear back a fist for a punch.

Downstairs the guy is going through Reedus's stuff when Loke is punched through the roof. "I must have been imagining things. He was totally weak." Gajeel states, once again holding Lucy. "Boze, Sue, I'm heading back. Take care of the playboy." Gajeel orders before leaving.

"Got it." They respond in unison.

Loke struggles to his feet. "I won't let you…" He manages to get out.

Before the mages could attack their heads are grabbed and slammed together by a Naruto clone. He rushes over to Loke, "Loke, are you okay?" it asks in concern. "I tried to make it in time to help, but was too late." The clone helps Loke to his feet.

"Lucy…" He weakly gets out.

The clone shakes its head. "Gajeel got her. I couldn't do anything."

Loke shuts his eyes and punches the ground in frustration. "Damn it!" 'I was too afraid of Lucy to act on my feeling that something was wrong and it allowed Lucy to be taken again. I'm pathetic.'

**Control Room**

Jose was shaking in anger. "Impossible! Four of the Element 5 were defeated by the trash from Fairy Tail!" He screams in outrage.

"If you are beaten by trash, then you're trash." Gajeel's rough voice rings out from behind Jose.

He turns around, "Oh, Gajeel, you're back."

"I've brought a present, Master." Gajeel mentions as he drops Lucy.

"That was quick. Nice job, Gajeel"

"Never underestimate a Dragon Slayer's nose." Gajeel says while tapping said nose.

"She is alive, right?" Jose skeptically asks. "It's useless if she isn't."

"Hmm…" Gajeel rubs his chin in thought. He then turns and kicks Lucy's prone form into a wall, making her cough up blood. "Yeah, she's still alive." He says with a cackle.

"As expected from the strongest man in my guild." Jose says with a villainous smile. He turns the loudspeaker on and gains the attention of the fighting mages. "We've succeed in capturing Lucy Heartfilia-sama. Thus, completing our first goal." Lucy's scream is heard through the loudspeaker as Gajeel lifts her up by her hair. "Now all that's left is to kill all of you annoying fairies." At Jose's words the shades begin to multiply and attack the already exhausted mages and the guild begins to walk forward.

Jose sands up and walks towards the exit. "Watch Lucy for me." He tells Gajeel. "There are some bugs in my guild. I'm going to show them that there won't be any more miracles. I will exterminate them myself." He says in an ominous voice as he leaves.

**With Erza**

Erza is standing in the middle of the room looking down at Aria when Gray, Elfman, and Mira walk in. "Erza, you beat Aria?" Mira asks when she sees him lying on the ground.

"Yes, but we have a problem." Erza says as she looks up. "We beat the fire, water, earth, and wind elements, right? Then why is the guild still able to move?"

The other mages realize that she is right, only the magical seal had been stopped. The guild was still able to move. Gray then notices something else, "Where are Natsu and Naruto?" he asks as he looks around.

"I sent Natsu to rescue Lucy, as for Naruto I haven't seen him since we split up. He could be anywhere." Erza informs them.

"Wasn't Naruto going to fight the last member of the Element 5, that lightning guy?" Elfman asks. Before he could get a response a blue-coated form comes crashing through the ceiling. The mages are instantly put on alert and regard it with suspicion. The figure stands up, revealing it to be a guy, and cracks his neck while looking up where he had just come from.

"Oi, isn't that the last member of the Element 5?" Gray notices. "Then he must be waiting for Naruto."

Said mage drops through the hole with a very different appearance than the mages were used to. His hair had grown even longer and shaggier, his eyes were red with slitted pupil, his whisker marks had grown thicker and darker, and he had landed on all fours. Even his voice was warped, **"Did you see that coming, Sasuke?"** he asked as red energy was flickering around him.

"That depends. Did you see this?" Sasuke was then covered in an unearthly ribcage that had a skeletal arm and was holding a sword, all of which was a glowing purple. "_Avatar Magic: Susanoo."_ He then attempted to cut Naruto in half, but was stopped as he grabbed the sword with his hands that were covered in red energy shaped like claws.

"Oi, I thought he only used _Lightning Magic_." Gray mutters as they watch the pair clash.

"Doesn't matter let's help him." Erza says requipping a sword. Before they could do anything a large feeling of malice and pain settles over the assembled mages. "What is this feeling?"

"It sends chills down a man's spine." Elfman says he breaks out in a cold sweat.

The sound of clapping is heard and the mages turn to face the noise. Jose is seen walking down the stairs, forgoing his normal attire and replacing it with a blue military-style uniform with yellow trim. "I'm impressed, Fairy Tail mages." Magical energy was wafting off of him in a purple haze and the malicious intent in the room increased as he got closer. "I never expected you to entertain me this much. You defeated _Jupiter_ and four of the Element 5, quite impressive."

"Master Jose." Erza says in recognition.

"This guy's Phantom's Master?" Gray asks in surprise, never expecting that he would show up or be this strong.

"What incredible, evil magical power." Mira says while holding her mouth and stomach. "I feel sick just standing here."

"Thank you for the entertainment, but I've had enough." Jose says with an evil smirk on his face.

Elfman and Gray stand in front of the girls and prepare to attack Jose. They charge forward and activate their magic with a cry. "Don't attack him!" Erza cries out, but is too late to stop the pair. Jose sends purple ghost-like creatures through the mages, draining their magic and defeating them instantly.

"Elfman, Gray!" Mira says in shock and starts to head towards them. Jose adds injury to injury as he creates an explosion by the downed mages, sending them flying and Mira rolling. Erza charges the man who counters by sending a vortex of dark magic at her. She jumps above it and requips to her Black Wing Armor and attacks Jose. He deftly avoids her and grabs her wrist before throwing her across the room. "You know that I'm leagues above you. Why do you still fight?" He asks her.

"My friends give me the strength to fight." Erza replies. "For those that I love I will do anything, no matter what happens to me."

"You have such a strong heart." Jose remarks as an insane look comes over him. "I will enjoy killing you, girl." He then is propelled forward by a blast of wind.

Behind him stood Naruto with his arms outstretched, **"If you want to hurt Neechan you'll have to go through me first."** He threatens Jose as he moves over next to Erza.

Jose gets up and glares at Sasuke. "Why didn't you stop him?" he demands before seeing that Sasuke's back was turned to him and he was still fighting Naruto. Jose turns back to Naruto and Erza. "I see. So you're the brat that uses _Clone Magic._" He states as his smile grows even larger. "'The Titania' and a mage that thinks he can fight both the master and an S-class member of the strongest guild at the same time. I truly will enjoy killing you both."

**"There's two things that you're wrong about." **Naruto says, **"One, I would never think that I could take on the strongest guild master, let alone him and someone else. And two you wouldn't be able to kill a gnat let alone a fairy." **he taunts Jose.

"Oh? Didn't you just say that you wouldn't be able to defeat me?" Jose asks with an arrogant smirk.

**"No. I said the strongest guild master, not your weak ass. I was talking about Fairy Tail's Master Makarov." **Naruto says with pride before giving his evil foxy grin. **"The man who kicked your ass six years ago."**

Jose's eye's narrow as his veins bulge on his forehead at Naruto's words. His anger reaches new heights at the reminder of his defeat and the slight at his abilities. "For those words boy you will dies first." Jose declares as he readies his magic. "_Dead Wa-_" Jose's magic is stopped as a large, purple arm backhands him into the wall.

Sasuke walks up with his _Susanoo_ still active and glares at Naruto. "You left me with a clone. That pisses me off, Naruto." He says as he flares his magical power.

**"What's the matter, Sasuke? Still haven't learned how to share after all these years?"** Naruto replies matching his power.

"Naruto, how do you know him?" Erza asks under her breath as she warily watches the man who had just attacked his own master.

**"Later, Neechan."** Naruto tells her as he walks forward.

Jose climbs to his feet, "What do you think you're doing, Sasuke?" he demands in a fury. "I made you who you are and I can take you down just as easily."

"Shut up." Sasuke tells him while never taking his eyes off of Naruto. "I always had more power than you ever knew. You didn't make me, I used you." He tells the Phantom master in a cold tone glancing at him.

Naruto lunges at Sasuke, hoping to catch him while he was distracted, but is caught himself in the _Susanoo's _fist. Sasuke turns back to Naruto, "I believe that you used me as a battering ram earlier. Time to return the favor." With that Sasuke slams Naruto into the ceiling and follows after him, leaving Erza alone with Jose.

**Natsu vs. Gajeel**

The two shirtless mages rush each other and match punches. Gajeel was covered in steel scales and had a demonic look to him with blood on his face while Natsu was bloodied and bruised, but still fighting. The pair then jump into the air above the guild and resume fighting hand-to-hand. As they battle on the top of the guild they start to destroy it. Eventually dropping back down into the room when their fists collide and the shockwave creates a hole.

The two mages rush each other again and exchange more punches and kicks. Eventually Gajeel grabs Natsu and lands a head-butt with his steel scales, making Natsu's forehead bleed. He decides to return the favor and delivers a head-butt that makes Gajeel's head bleed. The two mages separate and glare at each other while panting.

"Gajeel's getting tired." One of the Phantom members says in shock.

"Salamander isn't looking that great either." Another notices.

Suddenly the sound of clanging and crunching is heard. They look over to see that Gajeel was eating the iron that made up the floor of the room. "That's not fair!" Natsu says in outrage. "Why do you get to eat?"

Gajeel laughs as he starts to glow with power. "Take this, Salamander. "_Iron Dragon's Spears: Demon Poles!"_ With that Gajeel shoots spikes from his fingertips, hitting Natsu.

Off to the side Lucy frantically searches for her keys. "Fire, fire, do I have a fire spirit?" She says before remembering that she lost her keys and that Naruto still had the one they got from Galuna Island.

Natsu charges Gajeel, but is easily beaten and sent to edge of the hole they had put in the guild earlier. "Take a good look at what you're fighting so hard to protect." Gajeel says while pointing to the Fairy Tail guild. Outside the shades had assembled into a giant ball and were attacking the guild. The mages watched in horror as their guild was destroyed.

Natsu struggles back to his feet in a rage and staggers over to Gajeel. "Natsu, enough. Just let them have me." Lucy says with tears in her eyes. But stops when Happy grabs her boot.

She looks down at the flying cat and sees the tears in his eyes as he watches his best friend. "Natsu hasn't given up yet." He tells her. Lucy nods her head and goes back to watching Natsu.

Natsu had made it to Gajeel and was still struggling to stand. "It's over. Your guild is destroyed. You lost." The Iron Dragon Slayer tells him. Natsu raises his hand to give a weak punch, but is backhanded into the wall. Gajeel slowly stalks over to him, "Stay down, Salamander. I hate holding back, so if you keep fighting I'll kill you." He tells the downed mage.

"The _Jupiter Cannon_, fighting the Element 5, Natsu's used up too much power. If he just had some fire then he could easily kick your ass." Happy cries out.

Suddenly Naruto is shoved through the floor followed by a purple arm and ribcage that was surrounding Sasuke. He throws Naruto across the room and into Natsu. "Burn, Naruto! _Hellfire Blaze." _Sasuke shoots his black and red flames at the pair in a stream of hellish fire.

The flames start to move on their own and converge on one point. Natsu had gotten up and was eating the flames. He finished and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "Thanks for the meal, bastard. Now I'm all fired up."

Sasuke stares at Natsu in surprise, "You're a Dragon Slayer?" he asks in disbelief. For Kami's sake the guy's hair was the same color as Sakura's! Before he could get an answer he is tackled out of the guild by Naruto.

In midair he let's go of Sasuke and uses his _Sonic Rush_ to land on the top of the guild. He turns around and stares down at Sasuke. Said mage launched chains from his hands and grabbed onto the side of the guild. He then pulled himself up and landed behind Naruto. "That was a cheap shot."

**"That hurt, asshole."** Naruto says as he gets into his stance.

"Tough shit." Sasuke says as he enters his stance.

The best friends face off on the roof of the guild. They both had come to a decision, this would be the final fight. After this they would see who was the strongest.

**A/N: Alright, chapter's done! Originally this was going to be longer and end differently, but I used more words than expected so it will have to end next chapter. So no cliffhanger this time, shame. Next will be a longer Erza versus Jose and Naruto and Sasuke's fight will end. Ugh, writing fights is hard. Oh well, thanks for reading.**


	7. Chapter 7: End Game

**Hidden Guild: Silent Leaf**

**Chapter 7: Cleaning House**

**Disclaimer: I own neither Fairy Tail nor Naruto they belong to Mashima Hiro and Kishimoto Masashi respectively**

**A/N: End of Phantom Arc. All I have to do is wrap up the Dragon Slayer fight, and come up with a fight for Naruto and Sasuke, and extend Erza and Jose's fight, and include Makarov's recovery in a diiferent place since he isn't with Porlyusica, and find a way to make it long enough so that I can end it the way I want. Man, this is gonna be fun. I hate fight scenes, fun to read not to write.**

"Talking"

'Thinking'

**"Demon Talking"**

**'Demon Thinking'**

_'Flashback'_

_Magic/Magic Item_

**Location/Time Change**

**Fairy Tail Safe House**

The Naruto clone had gone and found blankets and a first-aid kit for Reedus and Loke. It had the two on makeshift beds next to Makarov's and had done its best to patch them up. Loke had insisted that he was fine and should go back to the fighting, but had clutched his chest halfway through his reasoning and collapsed. The clone was currently pacing across the room talking to itself. "Where are they? Where are they? Where are they?! It's been too long. All he had to do was go into the forest and get Porlyusica. How could he fuck that up? I didn't get any memories so he's still intact. The guild is destroyed, Natsu's fighting Gajeel, Neechan's alone against Jose, and if we don't hurry up and beat Sasuke Phantom's guild will start to walk all over the others and crush them like ants! Makarov is the only one left who can defeat Jose. Even if we were to break out _that _at full power and team up with Neechan, Jose could still wipe the floor with us. Where the hell could they be?!" The clone rants as it slowly starts to lose his cool.

At that moment the door opens, putting the clone on alert, and a tall, thin, older woman with pink hair tied into a bun held up by a pair of pins with crescent moons on the ends who was wearing a dark green blouse with a white tie, a long, dark red skirt, simple shoes, and a crimson cape with a wide collar that has dragon horn-like ornaments on it and white edges walks into the safe house followed by another clone. "I got Porlyusica." Clone-2 needlessly told Clone-1.

"Where is Makarov?" Porlyusica asks, straight to the point. Clone-1 pointed to the bed that he was lying in. She walks over to it and examines Makarov before slapping him, twice.

The clones' jaws drop at her actions. "What was that for?!" They demand in unison.

"He nearly died due to his lack of magic the first time, he could have died again if he had used anymore magic against the _Jupiter_ blast." Porlyusica explains as she takes out her bag and starts mixing herbs, "His magic has dropped dangerously low twice in such a short time. It's a miracle he hasn't permanently damaged something."

The clones are chastised by her words and fall silent as they watch her work. "Is there any chance that he could fight?" Clone-2 quietly asks.

"It will take him days to recover the magic that he lost." Porlyusica informs them without turning around. "In order for him to fight he would have to get all of the magic Aria stole back." The clones exchange worried glances at her words, wondering who would fight Jose if the master couldn't. Porlyusica turns around and sees that the clones are still there. "What the hell are you doing here?! Shouldn't you idiots be fighting?!" She cries as she grabs a broom and starts to swing it around. "Get out!"

The clones avoid her crazy swings and grab the broom. "No. We're just clones." Clone-1 says as he yanks the broom out of her hand. "We're the only two left and we barely have enough magic to fight. Everyone else is fighting the giant shade, Reedus and Loke already were defeated, and we don't have any other options. We are the last line of defense against Phantom if they attack Gramps." The pair of clones stand their ground with stony looks on their faces and stare off with the older mage.

"What good would two clones that can barely fight do against a Phantom mage?" Porlyusica rhetorically asks. "You're worried faces are going to hamper Makarov's recovery more than your feeble protection could possibly help him."

"Doesn't matter. We will protect Gramps as long as we still have magic." Clone-2 says.

Porlyusica runs a critical eye over them before giving a small nod of permission. "Fine, but stay away from me while I work. I hate humans." She orders the clones.

"We're not human, we're magic." They remark as they take up positions by the roof and door. Porlyusica shakes her head and goes about treating the injured mages.

**Fairy Tail Defenders**

The mages watch as the giant shade turns back to the normal, smaller shades. "Even with the guild destroyed they're still attacking." Bisca says as she reloads her gun. "And Phantom's guild has almost reached the shore."

"Even if our guild is destroyed we can still fight!" Alzack tells the others. "Because we are Fairy Tail!"

With that thought in mind the tired and battered mages get back up and continue to fight. As they are fighting a large explosion comes out of Phantom's guild. The fighters stop and watch as the guild slowly collapses in on itself. "Al, do you see that light?" Bisca asks her fellow gunner.

"Yeah, it has to be Natsu. He did it!" Alzack declares. At his words the other mages begin to cheer and fight even harder.

**Natsu vs. Gajeel**

Gajeel charges the revitalized Dragon Slayer. "Don't get cocky just because you ate some flames." He warns Natsu. "That just put us back on equal footing!" As Gajeel jumps at him to deliver another punch, Natsu turns a cold glare at Gajeel, unnerving him, and sends a flame covered punch into his chin that embeds him into the wall.

Natsu stands in a crouch as flames dance across his body. "Levy, Jet, Droy, Gramps, Lucy, all of my friends, and Fairy Tail." Natsu says in a low voice. "How dare you touch them with that damn grin on your face?" He roars at Gajeel.

Gajeel gets back up and launches another attack at Natsu. "_Iron Dragon's Roar!_"

Natsu's eyes flash as he puts his hands out to catch the iron shards that come rushing at him and throws them back into Gajeel. As the Iron Dragon Slayer is sent back he stares at him in shock. "You deflected my roar with only your bare hands." He says in disbelief.

Natsu stands with a look of fury on his face as he stalks towards Gajeel. "How much are you going to hurt people until you're satisfied?" He questions.

"Impossible. I'm the mighty Gajeel. I can't lose to trash like him." Gajeel says in denial of what had just happened.

Natsu's body is engulfed in flames as he gets closer to Gajeel. "I'm going to pay you back for everything. When I'm done you're going to wish that you had never even heard of Fairy Tail!" Natsu promises with a shout.

Gajeel laughs maniacally as he releases his magic power around him. "Who the hell do you think I am?" He asks before charging Natsu. "I'm the invincible Gajeel-sama! _Iron Dragon's Hard Fist!"_ With a cry Gajeel throws his steel scale covered fist at Natsu in a straight punch.

Natsu matches Gajeel's punch with one of his own, barehanded. As the punches collide they fight for dominance. In the end Natsu's normal punch overpowers Gajeel's magical one and sends him flying back with cracks running up the scales on his arm. Natsu charges forward, "This is for Fairy Tail! _Fire Dragon's Blazing Fist!" _ Natsu starts to hit Gajeel with a flurry of high-speed, blazing punches that batter him across the guild, eventually ending with a wicked uppercut. He then starts to emit flames around his body and rears his fist above his head. With a cry Fairy Tail's Fire Dragon Slayer brings his flaming fist crashing into the guild. Throughout the guild cracks appear and it slowly starts to fall apart. In the end all that is left standing is the broken main body, with huge holes throughout it, lying in the middle of the lake, just barely in the water. "Now we're even." Natsu tells Gajeel before collapsing.

Happy grabs Lucy and carries her out of the collapsing guild. "Natsu!" Lucy calls as they look for the destructive mage. They find him lying on the ground in exhaustion.

Natsu opens one eye and sees the pair approaching. "Huh. I can't move anymore." He mentions.

Lucy holds her head with her hands, "Honestly, you always overdo it, don't you?" Lucy asks with tears in her eyes.

"Aye. That's our Natsu." Happy declares in joy at Natsu's victory.

Natsu gives off his toothy grin as Lucy and Happy land next to him. 'But… that was kind of cool.' Lucy thinks to herself as she looks down at Natsu.

**Naruto vs. Sasuke**

The pair stumble as the guild starts to collapse. Naruto uses his magic to hover in midair and scowls when Sasuke does the same. **"Did you seriously just copy my magic?" **He asks with narrowed eyes.

"All you're doing is holding yourself up with wind from your feet. It's not exactly a complicated move." Sasuke replies while dodging the question.

**"If it's so easy then you shouldn't have to copy this!" **Naruto angles his body and uses his magic to launch himself at Sasuke like a torpedo. The Phantom mage easily avoids him by moving higher into the air and looks down at the wind mage in realization.

"You still can't fly yet, can you?" He taunts with a laugh.

**"Shut the fuck up! You can't use your ****_Susanoo_**** completely either."** Naruto shoots back.

Sasuke scowls, "You can't use your _Demon Slayer Magic _completely either." but pauses at Naruto's knowing smirk. "You're bluffing. You can't practice that around people without putting the guild in danger and you would _never_ do anything that could hurt our return."

**"I don't need to practice, I just got some tips from a demon and a slayer."** Naruto says as he is covered in a red energy that looks like a fox. **"****_Demon Fox's Cloak."_**

'Mirajane 'The Demon' who uses _Take Over: Satan Soul_ and 'Salamander' Natsu who uses _Fire Dragon Slaying Magic_' Sasuke realizes. "You asked them questions about their magic and used that to fix your problems without having to practice and then tried it out on monsters with no one around." Sasuke guesses and is proved right when Naruto nods his head. 'You always were a fast learner when it came to magic, but that was about it' "Pretty ballsy to use it where others can see you, Naruto." Sasuke tells him as he activates his _Susanoo_.

**"The only ones who are close enough to see it are you."** Naruto informs Sasuke as he charges him with a raised fist.

Sasuke cuts off the _Wind Magic_ at his feet and drops under Naruto. 'How does he make it so easy? I can barely keep myself stable.' Sasuke wonders. "Now that I don't have to power the damn guild I can use this." Sasuke grasps his right hand and aims it at Naruto, "_Homing Bolt." _A bolt of lightning is launched out of his hand and is avoided by Naruto. Sasuke moves his hand to follow Naruto and the lightning follows him.

Naruto continues to perform his aerial acrobatics as he is chased by the lightning bolt**. 'How is he doing this?'** He wonders as he drops into a freefall. As he rushes past Sasuke he notices him following his movements with his hand. **'That tricky bastard is using ****_Puppetry Magic_****! Kami, I hate it when he combines magic.'** Naruto gripes to himself. The blond then rights himself and rockets past the bolt. He approaches Sasuke planning to give him a taste of his _Demon Slaying Magic_, but is stopped in midair. Naruto struggles to free himself, but stops when he sees what caught him. All around him webbing is seen floating in midair and leading to Sasuke's left hand. The blond glances over his shoulder and sees the lightning bolt fast approaching. He turns back to Sasuke, **"I hate you." **The blond is then hit by the bolt and electrified… again.

Sasuke gives a satisfied smile. "No one can outrun this spell. It took me forever to make it and you have the honor to be the first person I've used it against." Sasuke stops when he hears a chuckling coming from Naruto.

**"That tickled."** The blond then burns through the webbing and lunges at Sasuke, grabbing him by the _Susanoo's _ribcage. **"But with this cloak it will take a lot more than that." **The blond takes a deep breath. **_"Fox Demon's Howl!" _**Sasuke is sent crashing down into the guild's roof by a blast of pure magic. **"Now that's an attack."**

'Damn, he hurt me through the _Susanoo.' _Sasuke thinks as he gets back to his feet. 'I don't have time to watch him now that he's using that magic.' Sasuke redraws the _Susanoo's _sword and launches himself at Naruto. As he rises flames cover the sword. "_Burning Sword of the Damned!" _Naruto attempts to catch the sword again, but is pushed backwards with smoking hands.

**'That attack burned me through the cloak.' **Naruto notices as he continues to gain altitude.** 'Guess he's done watching me and is going on the offensive. Well two can play that game." **Naruto had reached the peak of his flight as he drops down he activates his _Sonic Rush_ and extends the claws around his hands. **_"Demon Fox's Claws!" _**Sasuke raises his sword to block and grunts at the force behind it. The pair disengage and face off with each other in midair. Naruto lets out a growl as he is crouched on all fours, **"Not bad, Sasuke. I was expecting to have to sew you back together."**

"Hn. And I thought I was going to have to drag you off my sword." Sasuke shoots back as he raises said sword. The two mages slowly begin to circle each other to look for an opening and get a feel for staying in the air.

**Erza vs. Jose**

Erza faces Jose in her Black Wing Armor as the guild falls down around them. "Looks like the dragons went on a rampage." Jose says as he calmly regards the destruction of his guild.

Erza watches the Wizard Saint carefully, surrounded by the beaten forms of Elfman, Gray, and Mira. "It seems that you underestimated Natsu's power. He is on my level or even stronger." Erza states as she levels her sword at Jose.

"Drop the modesty, Titania." Jose tells her, unaffected by her words. "Your magical power is staggering. No other mage has held out against me for this long." Jose spreads his hand out to the side. "I'm glad that Makarov took the _Jupiter_ blast. This fight would have been disappointing if you had been injured." Erza grits her teeth at Jose's words, but knows better than to attack recklessly. Jose's magic flares as he tries to electrify Erza only to have her dodge his attack. She rushes in to hit him with a counter, but is blocked by his hand. Jose's fingers start to glow with a purple light. "Do you know why I didn't kill Makarov the first time?" Jose questions as he prepares to attack Erza. Unfortunately for him she slams her heel onto his foot, making him release her reflexively and miss her with his magic beam.

Erza backflips and requips to her Flight Armor, which has little armor, cheetah print clothing, and plushy ears and a tail that increases her speed, and a pair of short swords. "I don't give a damn!" She tells Jose as she rushes in low. Jose continues to fire his magic at her, but the speed increase allows her to easily avoid them. She approaches Jose and readies her swords. "_Sonic Claw!" _Erza manages to get under his guard and land a few cuts before Jose sends her flying With a kick.

Jose now was sporting cuts on his clothes and a small one on his cheek that were bleeding. "Despair." He tells Erza in an increasingly crazy voice. "I wanted to show him despair! When he wakes up he will see that it was all for nothing! His guild is destroyed and his beloved brats dead! I wonder how he will feel. Crushed for sure!" Jose says. "I will kill Makarov only after he has felt true despair. He will suffer, and suffer, and suffer until I kill him!" Jose declares in a maniacal voice. "But first I will kill you, Titania, and present your corpse to him."

Erza requips back to her Black Wing Armor and rushes Jose in a rage. "You sick bastard!" As she slashes at Jose he disappears in a burst of speed. He reappears in the same spot and continues talking as if nothing had happened.

"Phantom Lord was always the number one guild." He begins, "We had the strongest magic, the best mages, and the most money in all of Fiore. Until Fairy Tail started to gain fame over the past few years." Jose says with an angry tone. "Erza, Laxus, Mystogan, Mirajane, and Gildarts. Your names spread across the country like wildfire. Even rumors of the Salamander reached my hometown. Suddenly Fairy Tail and Phantom Lord were the top _two_ guilds in the country." Jose's eyes narrow at this point. "I hate it. That a shitty, pathetic, puny guild like yours could even be _considered _to be on the same level as mine."

"Shut up!" Erza orders Jose as she chases him across the room, but never manages to hit him. "Are you saying that you started a damn _war_ because you were jealous?!" Erza incredulously asks him while still trying to cut him in half.

"Jealousy. Of course not." Jose says. "We just want to show everyone who is obviously the strongest."

"What a worthless reason." Erza requips to her Flight Armor again, but Jose is ready for her this time. When she rushes him he prepares his spell to hit a larger area than before. However instead of continuing to run at him, Erza stops and performs a spin. When she finishes she hurls her swords at Jose. He is caught off balance and is only able to avoid one completely. The other impales itself into his leg and makes him drop to one knee.

"You bitch!" Jose pulls the sword out before uses his magic to capture Erza and starts shocking her. "I've hated your guild for a long, long time." Jose tells his captured audience. "But the catalyst was just a small matter. A request to return the heir to the Heartfilia Konzern."

'Lucy.' Erza realizes with a shock.

"The daughter of one of the wealthiest men in the country had joined Fairy Tail!" Jose says in outrage as he increases the voltage. "How big do you have to become until you're satisfied?" He demands. "If you bastards gained the wealth of the Heartfilia family then you would have had more power than me! That is something that I could never forgive!" Jose stops when he sees that Erza is smiling.

"It's pretty damn pitiful how big of a deal you are making over who's the best." Erza tells Jose, "But the truly pathetic thing is how horrid your information gathering is."

"What?" Jose asks in surprise.

"Lucy ran away from home." Erza explains, "She never touched her parents money and neither did we. She rents a house for 70,000 jewels a month. She works her ass off to earn a living like us, she fights with us, laughs with us, and cries with us. She is one of us! A mage of Fairy Tail! A trigger for war?! The heir to the Heartfilia fortune?! A flower can't choose where it blooms and neither can a child choose their parents! What the hell do you know about Lucy?!" Erza starts to shout at Jose towards the end of her speech and breaks Jose's magic. Jose is stunned by her words and that she could break out of his magic, thus he was unprepared for Erza's attack. She requips to her Purgatory Armor, which is a black, dress-like armor that is covered in spikes, has her hair in spikes that shoot out everywhere, and shadows her right eye, and has a large mace with six spikes on the back that leads to the hooked tip. She charges Jose and delivers a crippling hit that sends him flying through the wall. "This is my Purgatory Armor. None have seen it and lived to tell the tale." Erza informs Jose.

He stands back up and glares daggers at Erza. "You bitch! After I kill you I'll take back the Heartfilia bitch too. I'll use her as a hostage and get my hands on the entire Heartfilia fortune."

"I won't let you." Erza declares as she charges Jose.

**Safe House**

Makarov slowly opens his eyes and finds himself looking at a ceiling full of holes. 'Where am I?' He wonders as his memories slowly come back to him. He looks to the side and sees that Reedus and Loke are in makeshift beds and are wrapped in bandages. 'Reedus, Loke, I'm sorry.' Makarov climbs out of his bed and pulls on his Wizard Saint robe, 'Jose, I will stop you before anyone else is hurt.' he promises.

As he walks towards the door he is confronted by Porlyusica, "Where do you think that you're going?" she asks her former teammate with her arms crossed over her chest. "You nearly lost all of your power twice. You're in no condition to fight."

"If it's for my brats this old man will gladly put himself in danger so that they can stay safe." Makarov says as he walks past her. On his way past the door he passes a pair of sleeping clones and only raises an eyebrow before making his way to Phantom's destroyed guild.

**Erza vs. Jose**

Erza continues to chase Jose across the room, swinging her mace and destroying everything that she hits. "This is the best you can do, Titania?" Jose mockingly asks. "I expected more from the one who defeated Aria so easily."

Erza doesn't reply and instead slams the hook side of her mace into the side of the guild, dragging part of the wall out and hurling it at Jose. He shatters the rubble and looks for Erza through the smoke.

Above him Erza had requipped her Heaven's Wheel Armor and was flying above him with over thirty swords floating around her, "Dance, my blades! _Circle Sword!"_ Erza sends the swords rushing at Jose from all sides. He turns and starts to shoot the swords, but is unable to get all of them as he is cut on his side.

"You'll pay for that. _Dead Wave!"_ Jose fires a large beam of darkness magic that hits Erza and destroys her Heaven's Wheel Armor while greatly injuring her. "Enough games, trash. I will kill you now and go collect the Heartfilia girl." Jose tells Erza as she lays immobile on the ground in her normal armor. He raises his hand and summon shades that pick her up again. "I will crush you like I crushed your guild." With that the shades start to crush Erza, cracking her armor. Suddenly a bright light encompasses the pair and frees Erza from the shades. She collapses to the ground and lands on her knees. The two mages turn towards the source of the magical power. "Who's there?" Jose asks the direction the magic had come from.

Through the smoke a small figure is seen walking towards them. "You have spilled a lot of blood today." The figure says in a familiar voice. "Children's blood." The smoke disperses to reveal the Wizard Saint and Third Master of Fairy Tail, Makarov Dreyar. "Thanks to the mistakes and weakness of the parent a child had to go through pain and shed tears. And that goes for more than one child." Makarov says looking at the defeated forms of Erza, Gray, Elfman, and Mira. "This has gone far enough." Makarov releases his magic to show that he is back to full power. "Now I must end this war."

"Master." Erza says in joy as she wipes a tear from her eye.

Jose turns to Makarov with an insane grin on his face and a wild look in his eyes as the sclera turn pitch black and the irises shrink and become yellow. "You want to create a disaster?" The Phantom Lord master asks his fellow Wizard Saint as he charges his magic to his right pointer finger.

"If it's for the sake of my guild I will do anything!" Makarov declares as he clenches his left fist and charges his magic to his left pointer finger.

As the pair face off the air around them is charged with power and the remains of the guild themselves are shaking.

**Safe House**

Porlyusica stands in the doorway of the safe house next to the sleeping clones and boxes of food. She faces the battle going on as the wind picks up around her. 'The earth, the buildings, even the sky itself are shaking with fear.' She notices. "This is why…" Porlyusica calmly says to herself, "I hate humans!" She begins to hit everything around her with a broom. "A bunch of fools who see fighting as the only way to solve anything!" In her rage she hits the clones with her broom, dispelling them. "Makarov you idiot! If you want to die so damn bad, then hurry up and kick the bucket already!" As Porlyusica continues her warpath she knocks over the various crates and barrels, one of which was holding apples. One of the apples falls out and rolls over to a man who was wearing a dark blue cloak, bandages on his arms and legs, sandals, a hood over the top of his head with a metal plate in the middle, and a camouflage mask that covers the rest of his face and only leaves his eyes exposed and was holding a long, wooden staff with a fan-shaped head that was sitting on a crate. He reaches down and picks up the apple. Porlyusica looks over at the man and is surprised to see him. "Mystogan."

He holds up the apple. "May I have this?" Mystogan asks.

"I see… That explains why Makarov was able to recover so fast. You gathered up all of his magic and brought it back." Porlyusica deduces. Mystogan doesn't answer and takes a bite of the apple, annoying her. "I never said that you could have it!"

"The giant has made his move. The war will end soon." Mystogan says as he examines his apple.

"I don't want to encouraging fighting between humans, but you're one of Makarov's brats aren't you? You should be out there fighting however you see fit." Porlyusica stops as Mystogan picks up a stack of papers next to him and throws them into the air. As they are blown about in the wind it is revealed that the 'papers' are actually Phantom Lord flags. 'Phantom flags. Don't tell me that he went around and singlehandedly crushed all of Phantom's branches.'

Mystogan stands up and approaches Porlyusica, "May I have another apple?" he inquires.

"You better not be planning to leave all of this trash lying here." She tells the masked mage. "I've given up on you people. Too much power brings nothing but sadness with it. And in the end the whirlwind of anger makes one forget about the tragedies."

Mystogan takes a bite of his apple before responding. "I want to believe in a righteous light that encompasses the rage and sadness. A righteous light that guides all things." He says as he stares at the sky. Porlyusica says nothing and stands there. Together the outcasts look towards the guild and await the outcome of the war.

**Makarov vs. Jose**

Gray slowly sits up and holds his head. "What is this warm magical power? It feels familiar." He remarks before he looks over and sees the standoff between Makarov and Jose. Behind him Elfman also gets up holding his head.

Jose thrusts his hand forward and releases a stream of dark magic. Makarov raises his hand and creates several light magic seals that block the attack. "You all must leave this place." He tells the mages as he walks towards Jose.

"Master?" Gray says in surprise

"What are you doing here?" Elfman asks in confusion.

"We should do as he says." Erza tells them as she runs to their sides. "Let's go."

"But, Erza…" Gray begins to argue with her.

"If we stay here we will only get in Master's way." Erza tells the ice-make mage. "We have to go and leave everything to him." Gray grits his teeth, but knows that she is right.

Elfman walks over to his sister and helps her up. "Neechan, can you stand?" Elfman asks. Mira nods and the mages all begin to run towards the exit and leave with a backwards glance at their master.

"Now that you are here, I have no need to attack those weaklings." Jose taunts Makarov. "But I will be sure to hunt them down later and slaughter them all." Makarov remains stoic at Jose's words so he continues to talk. "It's been six years since we last faced off like this, hasn't it? And in that short time Fairy Tail has become such a powerful guild. Of course, now it's just a pile of rubble."

Makarov begins to draw symbols in the air behind him, "A guild is not just a building, it is the people who work together and share their feelings." he tells Jose.

"But I'm so happy. Two of the Wizard Saints are battling and I can finally show my superiority." Jose says as he releases his magical power.

"I really owe a lot to my kids. You all have done so well." Makarov says as he matches Jose's power and finishes his drawing. "Take pride in being a member of Fairy Tail!"

At Makarov's words a storm forms above the remains of the guild and water swirls around it in gigantic waves. The power is so great that it is felt on the shores. "What's going on with the sky?" One of the defenders asks at the lightning.

"The ground is shaking. What the hell is going on? Is it an earthquake?" Alzack wonders as he continues to shoot the shades.

**Naruto vs. Sasuke**

**"Looks like Gramps is back in action." **Naruto remarks as the storm appears. **"Jose doesn't have a chance in hell." **He stood on the opposite side of the roof from Sasuke, both having run out of enough magic to maintain flight.

"He never did. He's been blinded by power and status, that's all he ever cared about." Sasuke agrees as the pair stare at each other panting and low on magic. They had already dropped their _Susanoo _and_ Demon Fox Cloak _a while ago. "Judging by this the guild might have to deal with him, personally."

**"Just put that in a footnote on your report before you give it to Sai." **Naruto tells him before they both wince at the reminder that they had to write a report about this. **"I'm almost empty here and the masters are wrapping things up. I think we should follow their lead."**

"You read my mind." Sasuke says as he raises his left hand into the air. He creates a thin circular blade at the end of his hand. "_Mega Lightning Cutter."_ As he holds it in the air a bolt of lightning strikes and supercharges the attack. "One last move?" He asks.

Naruto holds his right hand out to the side, as he creates his move the wind around him is sucked into his vortex and a giant _Spiraling Wind Sphere_ is created that has a reddish hue to it. "_Giant Demonic Spiraling Wind Sphere." _Red eyes meet red eyes across the roof. "One last move." He confirms.

**Makarov vs. Jose**

The pair had sent their magics into each other and were fighting for dominance. Simultaneously they sent a light and dark bullet at each other. Jose is hit first and the bullet passes through his shoulder while knocking him back. As he is sent back he smirks at Makarov. The bullet that Jose had shot also went through his shoulder and forced the old mage to grab the wound. Jose recovers first and rears his arm back and gathers his magic. "_Dead Wave!"_ The attack is both larger and more powerful than the one he used on Erza. The blast is so large that it is seen from the shore.

Makarov defends from the attack by conjuring three light seals around himself and puts his hands together to form a triangle. The seals copy his movements and then fire an unnamed blast of magic at Jose. This blast is also seen from the shore, but it releases a shockwave that expands outward from the guild's wreckage.

**With Natsu, Lucy, and Happy**

The blast is so powerful that it dislodges Natsu and sends him crashing to a lower level. "Natsu, are you okay?" Lucy asks the immobile mage from her spot being carried by Happy.

"Yeah." He tells them.

"But what was that shaking just now?" Happy wonders.

Natsu gives off his toothy grin. "Only Gramps has that kind of power. He must have started fighting." He states.

**Makarov vs. Jose**

As the dust settles it is revealed that neither mage was affected. "Impressive. So much magical power, at such a young age. You truly have earned your place among the Wizard Saints." Makarov tells Jose, who's only response is to grunt at him. "If you had only used your power for good and become a role-model to the younger generation, the magical world could have benefitted greatly."

Jose raises an eyebrow at Makarov, "Are you lecturing me, old man?" he asks.

Makarov ignores the question and activates his _Titan Magic_. "As is the custom of justice in Fairy Tail I will give you until the count of three. Kneel and beg for mercy." Makarov tells Jose in a dark tone. "One!"

Jose chuckles at Makarov's words. "I was wondering what you were going to say, but this is ridiculous. You want me to "kneel and beg for mercy"?" Jose tells Makarov with a crazy look in his eye.

Makarov doesn't react to his words and places his hands together to form a ball of white light. "Two!" He bellows.

Jose forms his magic around his hands as he stares at Makarov. "You expect the number one guild in the country to bow down to _you_?!" He asks incredulously. "Don't kid yourself! I can match you in combat! No, I won't hold back anymore! I am even stronger than you!" Jose yells at Makarov.

Makarov finishes his spell. "Three!"

"You are the one who should bow before me! Now die! Crumble to dust and vanish from history along with the rest of Fairy Tail!" Jose screams as he launches his magic at Makarov.

"Time's up." Makarov says as he slams his palms together. A white light emits from between his hands, destroying Jose's attack. "_Fairy Law_ is invoked!" A bright light appears in the sky above the building. A beam is formed and strikes the guild with pure _Light Magic _that creates a dome which expands out and engulfs all of Magnolia within its light.

The fighting mages stop and are forced to cover their eyes because of the brightness. "What is this light?" Alzack asks.

"So bright…" Bisca says. Around them the shades slowly dissipate into nothing. "Only the shades are affected." She says in surprise.

"One after another, but it's not affecting us." Alzack notices.

"This light is… friendly." Bisca states as it passes over them.

Erza steps forward, "This is _Fairy Law._" she says with a smile.

"_Fairy Law_?" Gray says in confusion.

"A holy light that slays the darkness. It will only attack those that the caster sees as an enemy." She explains, "It's a super-powerful magic that is regarded as a legendary spell."

As the light disappears Jose is seen trembling with his hands held up to shield his face and his clothes faded while all of his hair turned white. Makarov stares at the shaking mage, "Never come near Fairy Tail again." he warns him. "You have caused so much damage that council definitely won't stay quiet about this. You should watch out for yourself for a while. And so should I."

As Makarov walks away the air behind him starts to swirl together and reveals Aria minus his bandages. 'So sorrowful. He's wide open just like last time. He's mine.' Aria thinks with tears in his eyes as he begins to activate his _Airspace Magic._

It never gets a chance to activate as Makarov magically extends his arm and punches Aria into the remains of the wall without looking at him. "It's over. The battle of the guilds is finished." Makarov declares. "But if you want to fight I will reduce you to nothing." He warns Aria. "Take Jose with you and leave. Now."

The Fairy Tail members all rejoice at their victory. "We beat Phantom!" They cheer and celebrate at Phantom's defeat.

At the top of the destroyed guild Makarov addresses the mages. "This victory isn't just from my power, it came from yours as well. This is a victory for our entire family."

Happy drops Lucy off, after Makarov's words, next to the Fairy Tail mages. They happily greet her and welcome her back. Erza then notices something missing, "Where are Natsu and Naruto?" she asks Happy. "Natsu said he had some business to take care of and I last saw Naruto fighting the lightning guy on the roof."

"Business? What kind of business?" Gray asks Happy.

"Nothing important." He reassures them.

"Why isn't Naruto back yet?" Elfman wonders aloud. "It's not like him to miss a celebration."

"He probably ran overdid it in his fight and ran out of magic. Honestly, sometimes he is as bad as Natsu." Erza says with a shake of her head. "I'll go and get him." With that she requips her Black Wing Armor and heads towards the guild's roof to collect her younger brother.

**Natsu and Gajeel**

Natsu is lying on part of the destroyed guild a floor above Gajeel. "Hey, Gajeel, can you hear me?" He calls out to the burnt mage.

"I can't hear shit." Was Gajeel's elegant reply.

"Whatever, I'll make this quick. Where did you learn your _Dragon Slaying Magic?"_

"I said I can't hear you."

"This is the first time I've met someone who can use the same magic as me. The least you could do is answer the damn question."

"Shut up…" Gajeel rolls over onto his stomach and pushes himself into a sitting position. "Metalicana." He says after a long pause. "I learned it from the Iron Dragon, Metalicana."

Natsu pulls himself over to the edge of the floor. "What?" He asks in surprise. Unfortunately he leans too far over the edges and falls down to Gajeel's level. "I knew it! You were taught by a dragon." Natsu states in satisfaction.

"You too?" Gajeel asks in surprise.

"So where is he?"

"I don't know."

"I asked where he was!" Natsu angrily repeats himself getting into Gajeel's face.

"I said I don't know!" Gajeel yells back, getting into Natsu's face. This proves to be a bad idea as the mages end up head-butting each other. They quickly break apart and hold their still tender heads. "Just talking to you turns my brain into mush." Gajeel remarks.

"What was that?!"

"He disappeared. One day, Metalicana just vanished. Without saying a thing." Gajeel tells Natsu. "He always was a selfish jerk.

Natsu looks at Gajeel, surprised by the resemblance between how their dragons had disappeared. "Hey, that wouldn't have happened to be seven years ago on July 7th, would it?"

Gajeel turns to stare at Natsu in shock. "Wait. Do you know where Metalicana is?" He asks with a tiny bit of hope in his voice.

"No way in hell. I'm looking for Igneel, the Fire Dragon." Natsu sits down across from Gajeel. "He also disappeared on July 7th seven years ago.

"Seven years ago, the year X777, the 7th day of the 7th month two dragons disappeared." Gajeel says in realization. "Why are there so many sevens in a row?"

"How the hell should I know?"

Gajeel stands up and leans against a destroyed wall. "It's not like it has anything to do with me. Why should I care?"

Natsu stares at him for a while before telling him, "If you're going to leave, then go already."

Gajeel whirls around in anger, "This is our guild, idiot! You're the one who is supposed to leave!" he yells at Natsu.

Natsu gets up and turns to leave. "Tell me if you hear anything about Igneel."

"Why the hell should I be nice to you?"

"Because we're both Dragon Slayers."

"Bullshit! Next time we meet I'll kick your ass! I guarantee it!" Gajeel angrily tells his fellow Dragon Slayer with a clenched fist.

"You're a dangerous guy. I thought we could call it even and make up now."

"You're the dangerous one. Look at what you did to our guild."

"You destroyed ours first! I give up. Now I'm not gonna try to make up with you."

**Ruins of the Fairy Tail Guild**

Makarov looks at the guild with a frown, "Wow, we got trashed pretty badly." he notices with a heavy sigh.

Lucy hesitantly approaches the master, "Um… Master."

He turns to look at her, "I know, you've really had a tough time."

Lucy bows her head at his words. "Don't make such a sad face, Lu-chan." A happy voice calls out from behind her. Lucy turns around and is greeted with the sight of Levy, Jet, Droy, and Reedus covered in bandages. "Everyone worked together to beat Phantom."

"Although our guild got destroyed." Droy mentions.

"All we have to do is rebuild it." Jet states.

"Oui." Reedus says.

"Levy-chan, Jet, Droy, Reedus." Lucy says with tears in her eyes.

"Sorry for making you worry, Lu-chan." Levy says.

"No. This is all my…" Lucy begins, but is cut off by Levy.

"I heard your story, but no one thinks that it's your fault." The petite mage reassures her best friend.

"I'm sorry that I couldn't be more help." Reedus apologizes to Lucy.

"Lucy." Makarov calls out. "Happiness and sadness, we can't share all of it. But what we can share we should. That's what being in a guild is all about. One person's happiness is everyone's happiness. One person's anger is everyone's anger. One person's tears are everyone's tears. You don't have to suffer from any guilt. Raise your head, because you are a member of Fairy Tail." Makarov tells her with a kind smile.

Lucy looks around and sees all of her friends and fellow guild mates smiling at her and tears build up in her eyes. Eventually she decides to let it all out and starts to cry. Everyone laughs at her antics and tries to cheer her up.

Makarov closes his eyes and smiles in satisfaction, but then he starts to worry about what will happen. 'Maybe we went a little overboard. The Council is going to be really angry about this. If it goes bad, they might even arrest us.' The more Makarov thinks about it the more worried he becomes. Eventually he starts to cry himself.

"Master?" Mira rushes to his side to see what is wrong.

**Erza Phantom's roof**

The requip mage lands on the roof and looks around at the destruction. 'Man, Naruto and that other guy really did a number on this place. I wonder what happened.' She thinks to herself as she shifts through all the rubble.

Eventually she finds the pair lying on the ground a distance away. 'There you are.' She thinks with relief before seeing something strange. They seemed to be lying in a puddle and weren't moving. Erza gets a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach and rushes towards them. When she gets there she is shocked by what she sees. Their clothes were ripped and torn, the pair of them looked horribly injured, and she could barely feel their magic at all. The worst part though, was that they were lying in a puddle of blood and the Phantom mage's arm was covered in it up to his elbow while Naruto had a steaming hole in his shoulder and was unnaturally pale.

Erza freezes up at the sight and is only able to do one thing as her mind goes blank. "NARUTO!" She screams at the top of her lungs before rushing to his side.

**A/N: Done. I am a complete bastard for leaving it like this, but I don't care. This was a harder chapter to write for me and I don't think I was able to do much with it. I basically stuck to canon for most of it. Fortunately next chapter should be pretty much completely original. Now it's late, I'm tired, and I still have to reread and edit this thing. Dammit, I need a beta cuz I still end up missing mistakes when I check these things.**


	8. Chapter 8: Team Meeting

**Hidden Guild: Silent Leaf**

**Chapter 8: Team Meeting**

**Disclaimer: I own neither Fairy Tail nor Naruto they belong to Mashima Hiro and Kishimoto Masashi respectively**

**A/N: New chapter. I'm nervous about this one since it will be mostly original. I'm not sure how well it will turn out so don't look at it too critically, this is my first story. Sorry it took so long. It took a while to get beta'd.**

"Talking"

'Thinking'

**"Demon Talking"**

**'Demon Thinking'**

_'Flashback'_

_Magic/Magic Item_

**Location/Time Change**

**In Hospital Lobby**

Erza, Lucy, Natsu, Happy, Gray, and Makarov were anxiously waiting around in the lobby for the report on Naruto's condition. He had been in intensive care since Erza had brought him and the Phantom mage, Sasuke, in hours ago. The doctors and Porlyusica had immediately taken his beaten and bruised body and started working right away. A second team was needed for Sasuke, due to several stab-like wounds on his stomach that had been hidden by his arm.

The door opens and the mages turn to look at Porlyusica. She shut the door behind her and sat down with a heavy sigh. "He's stable, for now." The mages all breathe sighs of relief and relax at her words. "But it looks bad." She continues, making them tense again. "He lost a lot of blood before we got to him, along with using nearly all of his magic. He also has various minor burns all over himself, especially his torso, several cracked ribs, and the most obvious wound is the hole he has between his shoulder and neck. Fortunately it was partially sealed when he got it or he would have died from blood loss before you found him."

Lucy starts to cry at what had happened to Naruto. Erza places an arm around her shoulder and pulls her in for a comforting hug. "I know what you're thinking and you're wrong." Lucy looks up at her in surprise. "We already told you that it wasn't your fault and Naruto would agree."

"But he's in such a bad shape because he fought that Phantom mage…" Lucy begins, but Erza cuts her off.

"He would have done that anyways. It wouldn't have mattered; if he knew that he would get injured or even die he still would have done it."

"Why?"

"Naruto has a saying, "Those that abandon others are trash, and those that abandon friends are worse than trash." and you are his friend, Lucy." Erza tells the sobbing mage.

Makarov turns away from the mages and back to Porlyusica, "How long until he gets better?" he asks, making her look away.

"Honestly, we're not sure. We had to put him in a coma and if we take him out of it too early he will die from the shock." She truthfully tells him. "Even if he does, the nerves in his shoulder were destroyed. He won't be able to use his right arm again." The mages are shocked by this grim news.

"But how will he work without the use of his arm?" Gray asks. "Naruto's right-handed, and uses hand motions for most of his attacks."

"I'm sorry, but there's nothing we could do. The damage that was done when he received the wound was too extensive. Nothing we can do will be able to fix it." Porlyusica sadly tells the mages.

Natsu angrily slams his fist into the wall, making a dent in it. "It's all that Phantom guy's fault!" He declares, "Where is that bastard? I want to give him a piece of my mind."

"Natsu, that's enough!" Makarov tells the angry mage. "We do not attack the injured."

"You couldn't talk to him anyways." Porlyusica tells them, gaining their attention. "We had to put him in a coma too."

"Why?" Gray asks in confusion. "I thought his injuries weren't that bad."

"Initially they weren't, but when we took a closer look there were five puncture wounds that we found on his stomach." She tells them, "He suffered multiple lacerations and bruising, severe blood and magical power loss, like Naruto, cracked ribs, and he has third-degree burns on his left arm all the way up to his elbow." She list Sasuke's injuries And surprises them at how extensive they were. "We put him in a bed next to Naruto."

Before the mages could ask any more questions Mira walks in, "The Rune Knights are here." she tells them, "They want our statements."

"All right, let's go." Makarov tells the others as he heads for the door. They protest, but he silences them with a look. "We can't do anything for them now. Porlyusica will tell us if anything changes so all we can do is wait patiently." The mages know that he is right and follow Makarov to the door. They all leave with one last look back at the door leading to Naruto's room. 'Get well soon, Naruto.' They all send their thoughts out for their injured friend.

**Several Days Later**

Sasuke begins to hear muffled voices as he sleeps. He shuts his eyes at the noise and attempts to ignore it to no avail. With great reluctance he opens his eyes and immediately regrets his decision as a bright light nearly blinds him. He looks at the ceiling in confusion. 'This isn't my room.' As he examines his surroundings with his eyes he recognizes where he is. 'A hospital? What happened that managed to put me in a hospital?' Suddenly the memories rush back into his head. The job request, warning Naruto, the fight, mobilizing the guild, the second fight, backhanding Jose, the pink haired kid eating his hellfire, Naruto tackling him out of the guild, the fight in the air, Jose and Makarov duking it out, the final attack… Sasuke jolts upright at his memories with a shout, "Naruto!" he then grabs his side at a fierce pain and notices the bandages on his arm and stomach.

"Oi, he's awake." A voice says making Sasuke look over. He saw Erza, Lucy, Natsu, a flying blue cat, and a man in only his boxers sitting next to a bed.

"You bastard!" Natsu says as he stomps over to Sasuke's side and grabs him by the collar of his hospital gown. "How dare you do that to Naruto?" He demands, confusing Sasuke.

"What do you mean 'How dare I'? It was a fight; you tend to get hurt in a fight." He tells the mage in a patronizing tone. "He got me too. What does it matter?"

Natsu drops him in a rage as his hands start shaking. "How can you talk about almost killing someone so calmly?!"

"The keyword being almost." Sasuke points out as he gets back up and sits on the edge of his bed. "The dobe was probably out of bed and raising hell in hours." Sasuke's face suddenly had a sword thrust in front of it with a very angry scarlet haired mage on the other end.

"You put a hole in him and expect that to clear up in hours?!" Erza shouts at him, "He nearly died because of you and still could! Because of you even if he recovers he won't be able to use his arm! I won't let you speak so carelessly about your actions!"

Sasuke's eyes widen in shock at her words. He knocks her sword to the side and grabs her collar with his injured hand. "How long have I been out?" He demands, surprising her.

"Um… around four days." Lucy hesitantly replies, hoping to stop the brewing fight.

Sasuke gives a smirk as his whole body relaxes. He lets go of Erza and leans back into his bed. "Now I know you're fucking with me. Naruto's never been in a hospital for over a day and a half, no way he's still within five miles of this one. Also, he would never lose function of his arm unless it had been cut off."

"How the hell would you know?" The half-naked guy,-

'Didn't Naruto mention someone who stripped a lot? He was named after a color or something, Black? Orange? No it was… Gray, that's it.'

-demands while angrily rising to his feet and stalking over to Sasuke's bed.

"I've known him for years. I was on his team back with White Fang." Sasuke tells the mages, "He's my best friend."

They're shocked at this information. "Then why would you try to kill your best friend?" Erza demands with her sword still out.

"It was an accident. Naruto's attack stopped and knocked me off balance, but he has to be fine now. It's been over a day." Sasuke says with full confidence in his friend's recovery.

Erza narrows her eyes at the man who obviously had something wrong with him. No one shrugged wounds like that off as unimportant, especially for someone that he claimed to be his best friend. "Then explain this." Erza motions to where Naruto was still in bed, covered in bandages.

Sasuke's eyes widen in shock again and he springs out of his bed. "Naruto!" with a cry the former Phantom mage rushes to his side. Sasuke couldn't believe his eyes, Naruto was covered in bandages and barely breathing in a hospital bed. Sasuke checked the monitors, which showed that his heartbeat and breathing were slower than normal, but still consistent. 'Impossible. Naruto's been able to heal nearly instantly for years. The only way that he couldn't is if someone cut off his magic…' Sasuke's thoughts trail off as a cold feeling of dread washes over him. He ignores the other mages' words and quickly grabs Naruto's chart at the foot of his bed. 'Thank you Sakura for showing me how to read this damn thing.' Sasuke thinks as he scans the chart, hoping that he was wrong.

As he is scanning the chart, Porlyusica walks in to check on the patients only to find one of them reading a medical chart and being yelled at by the visiting mages. 'This is why I hate humans, always thinking they know best.' She irritable thinks as she feels an oncoming headache approaching. "What is going on here and why are you out of bed?" She demands.

Erza turns to the pink haired healer and begins to explain what had happened. "Sasuke, here," she gestures to the raven haired mage that was still scanning Naruto's chart, "woke up while we were visiting Naruto. Natsu then tried to get answers out of him, which led to the discovery that he was on Naruto's old team and apparently his "best friend". He seems to be delusional because of his medication and believes that Naruto should have recovered days ago."

Porlyusica frowns at this information, but doesn't get a chance to respond as Sasuke had apparently found what he was looking for, and he was not happy with the outcome of his search. "Kami damn those idiots!" He turns to Porlyusica and gave her a red-eyed glare as he stalks over with Naruto's chart. "You're a doctor right?" Sasuke asks her, but continues before she can answer, "Then tell me why the hell he is in a coma?" The angry mage demands.

Porlyusica is both offended at his attitude and that he was implying that she didn't know what she was doing and impressed that he understood what the chart was saying. "So that he could remain among the living, boy." She tells him in a cold tone, "We had to put him in a coma to fix the damage to his shoulder that you caused."

"Well you fixed it so bring him out of it." Sasuke demands while spinning his eyes to intimidate her.

Unfortunately for him, Porlyusica was made of sterner stuff than the average doctor and let him know that. "You are not in charge here, you are a patient. I will bring him out of his coma when he is fully healed and not before, all because a hot-headed idiot that can do a trick with his eyes tells me to. You shouldn't even be out of bed yet. You're going to pop your stitches." She tells Sasuke in a no-nonsense voice.

Sasuke looks at her in confusion at the mention of stitches, before remembering the sharp pain he felt when he woke up. He lifts up his gown and is surprised to find that he had five wounds on his stomach. 'When did that happen?' Sasuke shakes his head and looks back at Porlyusica, "Take Naruto out of his coma and I'll go back to bed, hag."

Porlyusica represses the urge to beat the brat with her broom and restrains herself to punching the top of his head, dropping him to the floor. "You idiot! If I do that the shock will kill him." Sasuke stops rubbing the bump on his head and stares at her in surprise. Porlyusica snorts at him, "What, did you think that getting a hole blown into your shoulder would fix itself overnight? These things take time and he's not out of danger yet. It will be months before he gets well enough to move."

Sasuke gets to his feet and glares at her, "Not if I can help it." he mutters under his breath before turning around and heading to the door.

"Where do you think that you're going?" Erza demands as she steps into Sasuke's path. "You heard Porlyusica, you're still injured. Get back to bed." Erza emphasizes her order with a sheathed sword poke to his wounds, making him wince in pain.

Sasuke moves his gown to the side and covers his stitches with his good hand. His black fire flares to life and starts to burn his stitches off, sealing his injuries in the process. He hisses in pain, but grits his teeth in determination. When he takes his hand away the wounds were sealed, but he now has a large burn in their place. "Problem solved." He deadpans at Erza as he makes to brush past her.

She is shocked at his actions, but remains firm. "Why are you trying to leave so badly? We won't hurt you, so what are you trying to do?"

Sasuke levels the famous Uchiha red-eyed stare at her as he responds, "To find a damn _Video Lacrima_."

Erza continues to block his way. "And what will that accomplish?" She asks, slightly curious herself. The man had just sealed his own wounds to get out of the room, it had to be important.

"It will let me call someone that can heal Naruto completely."

Sasuke's words stun the Fairy Tail mages and Porlyusica. Naruto's shoulder had a large hole that went all the way through it. It had destroyed his collar bone and shoulder blade, fried his nerves, and disabled him for life. Now the guy that had put it there just so happened to know someone that could make him as good as new? It was ludicrous. "That's awfully convenient, isn't it?" Gray asks, sarcasm dripping from his voice.

"Do you want him to remain a cripple?" Sasuke coldly asks.

"It's impossible." Erza says, not wanting to let herself hope that this man could find a way to perform such a miracle. "_Healing Magic_ is a Lost Magic. No one can use it anymore." She says in an uncertain voice.

Sasuke raises an eyebrow at her. "Like _Dragon Slaying Magic_?" he asks with a pointed glace to Natsu. "I thought you were his Neechan? What kind of sister doesn't want the best for her brother?" Sasuke taunts, knowing that he had won.

Erza grits her teeth at his words, but knows that he was right. If there was even the slightest chance that Naruto could use his arm again they had to take it. She moves out of the way, "If this is a trick…" Erza threatens.

Sasuke rolls his eyes, "If I wanted to leave I would have already left." To prove his point he disappears into the ground and reappears outside of the doorway. He gives them a pointed look before heading down the hall. The Fairy Tail mages follow, wanting to see who he was calling and if he could save their friend.

Porlyusica stays behind to fulfill her original purpose of checking on the injured mage. As she approaches Naruto's bed she notices something, 'He took the chart with him?' she checks on Sasuke's own chart and finds that it was still there. She picks it up and narrows her eyes at it. 'How could he be moving that easily? The amount of pain medication he's on should make him groggy and barely able to function.

**In the Hallway**

Sasuke strode down the hallway with a determined look on his face. Behind him the mages jog to catch up with him. "Do you even know where you're going?" Erza demands.

"Hn." Sasuke grunts at her as he continues down the hall. He stops when he comes across a hospital worker and grabs them by the collar. "Where is the nearest _Video_ _Lacrima_?" he asks while spinning his red eyes. This worker was made of weaker stuff than Porlyusica, so he cracked instantly.

"It's down the hall, last door on your left." The worker squeaks out in fear. Sasuke drops him and continues down the hall. "But I think someone's in there."

Lucy stops to help the man up and apologizes for Sasuke's actions. The former Phantom member reaches the end of the hall and throws the door open. Inside a doctor was talking with a man on the lacrima. He turns around and looks at Sasuke in surprise. "What are you doing here? Can't you see that I'm busy?" The doctor demands.

Sasuke snorts at him before requipping his chokuto and leveling it at his face. "I thought that you were done. Was I mistaken?" He asks in a monotone, but his eyes promised pain if he didn't like what he heard.

The doctor waved his hands in front of him and started to edge out of the room, with Sasuke's sword following him the whole way. "N-no. You're right I was just leaving." He shakily tells the sword wielding mage. As he runs out of the room he nearly collides into the Fairy Tail mages. "You might want to wait if you're planning to go in there." He tells them in a weak voice before sprinting down the hall.

The mages walk in the room and see Sasuke staring at the Video Lacrima as it sends out a call. "What happened with the doctor?" Lucy timidly asks Sasuke.

He ignores her and focuses on the screen. "Come on, come on, pick up, dammit. I swear to Kami if you're chatting with Ino…" Sasuke mutters under his breath. His threat is never finished as a familiar girl with long, pink hair answers.

"Hello? Huh? Sasuke-kun, you never call. What happened? I read the paper and saw that Phantom was disbanded. Do you need help or something?" Sakura asks him before noticing what he was wearing. "Eh? Why are you wearing a hospital gown? Are you hurt? I swear if you tried to fix it on your own or just let it heal "naturally" to avoid the hospital again…" Sakura threatens with a fist raised and a scowl on her face.

"Not this time. I need your help. It's Naruto." Sasuke cuts right to the point.

Sakura looks at him in confusion. "What? Did he put you in the hospital again and you want me to hit him? Sasuke-kun, I doubt that he deserves it this time, although I wouldn't put it past him after he tried that tornado move and nearly got us thrown off that cliff while you two were sparring." Sakura tells him as she nostalgically remembers when she had hit Naruto for his stupid and outright dangerous "ideas".

"No. He needs your help."

Sakura snaps out of her memories and stares at him in surprise. "But Naruto never gets hurt enough to need healing. Even if he does it only takes him a day at most to heal."

"Well he needs it this time. He's been out for around four days."

"WHAT?!" Sakura shrieks in shock. "That long? Why?"

"They put him in a coma and can't take him out without the shock killing him." Sasuke explains and holds up the chart he had taken. "I managed to get his chart."

Sakura scans the chart as fast as she can, as she continues she motions for Sasuke to flip the pages periodically. When she reaches a certain part of the chart her eyes narrow, "Sasuke…" Sakura calls out in a falsely cheerful tone that makes him start to sweat. "How did Naruto get these wounds?"

Sasuke fearfully looks at the all too cheerful and large smile that reminds him of Naruto's smile right before he hit someone that pissed him off. Sasuke debates lying, but resigns himself to his fate. His eyes slide off to the side as he mumbles under his breath. "I might have put one of my supercharged _Lightning Cutters _through his shoulder."

"YOU WHAT?!" Sakura roars at him. "Why the hell would you do something so fucking stupid! I know you both tend to get carried away when you fight, but this is ridiculous! I would expect Naruto to do this kind of stupid shit not you!"

"To be fair he stabbed me in the gut." Sasuke points out in his defense, but ends up digging an even deeper hole for himself.

"Then why are you up?" She shouts at him. "I'm taking the next train to Magnolia and coming down there right now and so help me Kami if you are still out of bed when I get there I will drop a mountain on you and leave it there until you are one hundred percent cured."

"No time for the train. I'll pick you up and bring the kid." Sasuke tells her as he turns to leave.

"How will you get here that early?"

Large, white wings appear on Sasuke's back, "I'll think of something." he tells her before cutting the feed.

The Fairy Tail mages had jumped in surprise when Sasuke's wings had appeared and now they stared at him. "That was my magic!" Happy exclaims, "How did you do that?"

"You also made the fire that Natsu ate during the fight." Lucy mentions, "I thought you were a lightning mage." The mages start to stare at Sasuke in suspicion. He was a member of the Element 5, but used more than his signature element? That didn't add up and they wanted answers.

Sasuke looked at them in annoyance. Did they forget about Naruto's condition? It didn't matter; he had a friend to pick up. He turns to look at Happy, "How fast can you fly?"

Happy stares at him in surprise, "Why does that matter and how do you have my magic?" he asks in an attempt to stand up to the red-eyed mage. It soon shatters when Sasuke starts to spin his eyes and gives him the Uchiha glare.

"How. Fast. Can. You. Fly?" He repeats, clearly annunciating each word.

"If I use _Max Speed_ I can outrun a magical four-wheeler." Happy squeaks out in fright.

Natsu steps in front of his friend and glares at Sasuke. "Why do you need to know, bastard?" he asks.

"To help heal Naruto." He tells the irate mage as he walks past him.

He crouches down to stare Happy in the eyes. "Show me." He asks the talking cat.

Happy stares at Sasuke in fear. "A-a-aye." Happy activates his magic and flies into the air. Erza grabs his tail before he gets far and gives Sasuke a hard look.

"Why should we trust you?" She demands, still suspicious of his motives. No matter what he said, he had still nearly killed Naruto. "And why do you need to see Happy's magic?"

He gives her a blank stare before speaking. "Those that abandon others are trash, and those that abandon their friends are worse than trash." His words shock them. He had just repeated Naruto's saying word for word. "Naruto is my friend and I will do whatever I can to help my friends. Also I can only copy the magic I see, so even if I copied his wings I still need to see this _Max Speed_."

Ezra nods at his words and releases Happy. They then follow him outside where he demonstrates his _Max Speed_. Sauce silently watches him and nods when he has seen enough. Sauce flares his own set of wings and looks at them all. "I'll be back." He promises before turning in midair. "_Sonic Speed_." He says before taking off like a missile towards Cait Shelter with a burst of wind empowered speed.

**Cait Shelter Guild entrance: Several Hours Later**

Sakura is pacing outside of the guild while waiting for Sasuke. "Where is he? We could have been on the train by now. If that idiot turns out to be wrong about being faster or if he can't fly because he reopened his wounds I'll knock him out and chain him to the bed until he's better." Sakura claims with a dark look in her eyes as she menacingly cracks her knuckles.

Behind her a short, petite girl with fair skin, waist length dark blue hair held back with a yellow ribbon like Sakura's, and brown eyes that was wearing a dress with a yellow and blue wavy stripe pattern on it that has pointed edges on the bottom and a white bow in the middle, wing like attachments on her arms and ankles, and a blue guild mark on her right shoulder nervously watches the older mage pacing. "Um… Sakura-sensei?" She timidly calls out, making Sakura stop her pacing, "Why are you bringing me with you?"

"Because I might need your help for this favor, Wendy." Sakura admits as she nervously bites her lip. "It takes a lot to put Naruto down and I'm worried about him. Plus Sasuke-kun asked me to, which worries me even more."

"But I'm not sure how much help I will be." Wendy nervously tells her, "What if I can't do anything?"

"You need to have more confidence in yourself, Wendy." The third "person" of their small group tells her. She is a small white cat similar to Happy that has large pink ears, brown eyes, and two whiskers on her cheeks and is wearing a yellow and pink top with a pink bowtie and a pink bow on her tail. She continues to chastise the young girl, "If you had more confidence in yourself you wouldn't be such a shy person."

Before the conversation can escalate into another lecture a black dot is seen in the distance that is rapidly approaching. Sakura senses this and turns to face it. "Quiet girls, Sasuke-kun's here." The cat and girl pair stop arguing and turn to see one of the two men that Sakura always talked about when her past came up.

Sasuke lands next to them with a flap of his wings before deactivating them. He runs a critical eye over the three of them. "Sakura, are you ready?" He asks, straight to the point. Sakura nods and motions for the other two to follow her as she walks towards Sasuke. He holds up a hand at their approach. "I said just to bring the kid; I'm not carrying around a damn cat."

Carla takes offense at his words and lets him know that, "I'm not just a cat, I'm a mage too." She activates her _Aera_ to prove her point.

Sasuke lazily glances at her and activates his _Mirror_ _Eyes_. He raises an eyebrow at her magic. "Another one, huh. Even better. You carry the girl while I carry Sakura." At this Sasuke creates a chain out of his back, "If you start to fall behind grab this." He holds the chain out to Wendy.

She shyly takes the offered chain. "T-thank you, Sasuke-san. My name's Wendy, it's nice to finally meet you." She stutters out.

"Hn." Sasuke grunts before handing Naruto's chart to Sakura, "I thought that you'd might need this." He explains as she takes the chart.

Sakura reaches to grab the chart, but then grabs his wrist. She glares at him when he tries to pull away. "You're shaking." She tells him, before taking a closer look at his face with narrowed eyes. "And you're sweating along with being nearly as pale as Sai. You probably couldn't make it halfway back to Magnolia, could you?"

Sasuke gives up on breaking her grip and looks her in the eye. "I'll make it."

"No you won't. Not in your current condition."

"I can if you heal me on the way."

Sakura looks at Sasuke skeptically, "You want me to heal you in midair while we're flying? Are you crazy? We should take the train an-"

"There's no time!" Sasuke says as he cuts her off. "I nearly killed Naruto and have probably crippled him. You're the only chance he's got. I don't care what happens to me, I'll deserve it. Please, Sakura." Sasuke asks one of his oldest friends in desperation.

Sakura looks at Sasuke in confliction. On one hand if she lets Sasuke do this he could end up killing himself from the exhaustion, but on the other Naruto's life could be at stake. Sasuke had said please though. She could count on one hand the number of times she had heard him say that, so it had to be worse than what she had been told if he was going this far. "Fine. But when we get there you're going straight to your bed." She tells him with a pointed look that brokered no arguments.

"Thank you." Sasuke says before grabbing Sakura and holding her to his chest. "Kid you have the chain?" He calls back.

"Yes, but…" Wendy says holding up the chain.

"Then hang on." Sasuke activates_ Aera_ and his wings spring to life behind him.

"Sasuke-kun, wait, what are you doing?" Sakura asks nervously, as she feels his already tight grip strengthen.

Sasuke ignores her and leaps into the air. He pivots back towards Magnolia and activates his speed boost. "_Sonic Speed_."

As they take off, Sakura yells at him while hanging on with a death grip that made Sasuke's ribs creak. "You bastard!" Her response makes him laugh, before he starts to feel how strong her grip was and slows down a little. Sakura decided that he had spent too much time with Naruto and resigned herself to start healing him so they both wouldn't plummet to their deaths. But if they did fall she was going to use his body to break her fall.

Wendy and Carla stare at them as they take off. "Did they forget about us?" Wendy asks her friend.

"I think so. He couldn't possibly expect us to follow him at that speed." Carla says in an uncertain tone as she watches them fly farther away.

"Then why did he want me to hold onto this chain?" Wendy asks while holding up the chain, which had apparently increased in length and was wound into a coil.

The two stare at it and then the retreating mages. They then look down and see the rest of the chain unwinding next to them. Their eyes widen in shock and Carla quickly picks up Wendy and flies after them. "That idiot!" She yells as they attempt to catch up to the former teammates and avoid getting dragged by the chain.

**Magnolia Hospital Entrance: Several More Hours Later**

It's already dark as an exhausted Sasuke sets down Sakura before collapsing on a nearby bench. He had told Sakura to stop healing him halfway through the trip and save her magic. He was now starting to think that he might have overestimated himself. Flying from Magnolia to Cait Shelter and back with an extra passenger for half the trip was a horrible idea. Especially when he used most of his magic on the first half. Sakura would kill him if she found out that he had eaten her horrible tasting emergency pills just so he could keep up the pace he had set.

Behind them a weary Carla dropped Wendy off next to Sakura and collapsed next to Sasuke. "You… are… a… horrible… person…" She pants out as she glares at him. "We… almost... died… and… you… didn't… even… slow… down…"

"You lived, didn't you?" Sasuke points out, in a tired voice.

Carla looks at him in disbelief and just puts her head down in defeat. Sakura was bad enough, but now she had met one of her former teammates. Sakura had always said that she was the most normal and sane person on her old team, but Carla had never believed her. Now that she knew what another was like, and he was supposed to be the sanest and most normal man on said team, she was willing to reevaluate her opinion.

Sakura picks up Sasuke and Wendy picks up Carla. They head into the hospital with their patients in tow and walk up to the receptionist. "Where's Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha's room?" She asks.

The receptionist doesn't look up from her filing; "I'm sorry, visiting hours are closed." was the standard response in the monotone of someone who had given it millions of times before.

"I'm not here to visit."

The receptionist looks up in surprise and sees Sakura glaring at her while holding a now unconscious Sasuke over her shoulder. She gulps and quickly finds their room. "Down the hall and the last door on the right."

"Thanks." Sakura strides down the hall and enters the room. Inside she finds Porlyusica, Lucy, Erza, Gray, Natsu, and Happy occupying various places around the room, sound asleep. She walks over to Sasuke's bed which was currently being used by Gray. "Move." She tells him before kicking him off the bed and putting Sasuke in it. "And put some clothes on."

Gray hits the floor with a thud, waking everyone else. "Who the hell pushed me?" Gray asks while rubbing his head. He sees someone with pink hair and immediately assumes that it's Natsu. "What the hell was that for, you bastard?" Gray demands as he jumps to his feet, grabs Sakura by the back of her shirt, spins her around, and gets into her face. Gray let's go of her when he sees that it wasn't Natsu and starts to apologize, "Sorry, I mistook you for someone I know."

Sakura gives him a sweet smile, "That's alright. I just have a question. Do you work here?"

"Uh, no."

Sakura never loses her smile as a vein pops on her forehead. "Then would you please, get out!" The last part of her question is emphasized as she nails Gray in the gut and sends him through the wall. The Fairy Tail mages are stunned at her power. Sakura turns around and looks at them. "Anyone that isn't a doctor or nurse scam!" The mages quickly exit, still groggy from being woken up so violently, and uselessly shut the door behind them due to the Gray-shaped hole in the wall.

Porlyusica turns to look at Sakura and Wendy with a raised eyebrow. "Was that really necessary?"

"Yes, now can you help me?" Sakura asks as she walks over to Naruto's bed.

"I've been in charge of theses idiots since they were brought in."

"Thank you." Sakura says with a small bow. She then peels back Naruto's bandages and lets out a small gasp. It was one thing to hear about it, but another to see it up close. "I didn't think it would be this bad." She mutters under her breath. "Wendy!" she calls making the young mage squeak in surprise. "I'm going to need your help after all."

Wendy puts Carla down in an empty bed and comes over to Sakura's side. She nearly throws up when she sees the condition of Naruto's shoulder. "That's horrible."

"I know. Can you help me?" Sakura asks.

Wendy looks at her sensei then back to Naruto. This was her chance, if she couldn't do this then she would never be able to help others like she wanted. She braces her resolve and gives Sakura a sharp nod. "Yes."

"Good." Sakura tells her with a proud smile.

She looks at Porlyusica, "Can you bring me the medicine and equipment I need." The pink haired healer nods at her and moves to get the necessary medical equipment she would need. "Alright, Wendy, let's get started." Together the three of them worked long into the night to fix Naruto's shoulder while the Fairy Tail mages watched them through the hole in the wall.

**Next Morning**

Sasuke opens his eyes to find that he was once again looking at a hospital ceiling. He then bolts upright and glances around the room. Sakura was sleeping next to Wendy by Naruto's bed. 'Isn't that a familiar sight?' Sasuke gets out of bed and reminisces on all the times Sakura had fallen asleep by their beds after they had trained till they dropped or had gone too far during a spar. He walks out to the lobby and gets directions to the cafeteria. Once there he grabs two cups of coffee and brings them back to the room. He crouches down next to Sakura and puts the coffee under her nose.

"Mmmh, smells good." She mutters as she opens her eyes. "Morning, Sasuke-kun."

"Morning, Sakura." Sasuke replies as he gives her the coffee.

Sakura accepts the offered drink and slowly gets up, careful not to disturb Wendy. The girl had worked very hard to help her and deserved a rest. She catches the worried look on Sasuke's face, "Outside."

Sasuke nods and opens the door before they walk to the mostly empty cafeteria. He sits down at a table across from Sakura and folds his hands. "How is he, Sakura?" He anxiously asks.

Sakura sets her drink down with a sigh, "It's not good, and if you hadn't called me Naruto would never be able to use his arm again and probably would have died." Sasuke winces at that, remembering that he was the reason his best friend was in that condition. "When you hit him with your attack the system that connects his arm to his magic container was also destroyed along with his nerves. This was made even worse when the wound was burned close. That was your doing, I assume?"

Sasuke couldn't meet Sakura's eyes, "It was the only way I could think of to stop the bleeding." he miserably muttered.

Sakura reaches across the table and puts her hand on his shoulder. "It's okay. That actually saved his life." Sasuke looks up in surprise. "If you hadn't done that he would have bled out before the doctors ever got close to him." Sakura explains with a small smile.

"Thank Kami." Sasuke whispers as a weight that he didn't know he was carrying falls off of his shoulders. He was afraid that he had done something to permanently injure his friend while he was trying to save him. "What now?" He asks.

"I'll have to call Roubaul-san and let him know that we will be staying for a while. I was only able to undo the burns, prevent him from bleeding anymore, and finish healing all of his other wounds. I still have to reattach his nerves and magical system. That could take days because of how delicate it is to perform and with the magic from his lacrima running through his system I have to make sure that it doesn't kill him now that it can't be evenly spread throughout his body." Sakura explains, "What about you? What are you going to do now that Phantom has been disbanded?"

Sasuke lets out a heavy sigh, "I'm not sure. I still have to contact Sai or Shikamaru to let them know what is going on. They'll probably call me back to the current safe house and either give me a new assignment or, more likely, pull me from the operation. Before that I have to write down my report and then explain my reasoning for why we should eliminate Jose. Ugh, I hate paperwork."

Sakura giggles at Sasuke's face when he mentions paperwork before turning serious. "Are you going to stay until Naruto's fully recovered?" She nervously asks.

Sasuke nods his head, "Of course, we're a team aren't we?"

Sakura gives him a small smile, "Yeah, we are."

Together the two members of Team Kakashi finish their drinks before walking back to check on their injured member and best friend.

**A/N: Done, man that was hard to write. Finally getting away from canon so that's a start. Also everyone can stop bitching about how it's following canon. This is mainly filler until the Fighting Festival Arc which I should start around next chapter, maybe. Whatever, it will work out eventually. I want to thank my new beta, Andrigno, who volunteered to read the stuff my mind comes up with. I'm uploading this from a different computer so there might have been some issuses.**


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